We describe the construction and characterization of a genomically recoded organism (GRO). We replaced all known UAG stop codons in Escherichia coli MG1655 with synonymous UAA codons, which permitted the deletion of release factor 1 and reassignment of UAG translation function. This GRO exhibited improved properties for incorporation of nonstandard amino acids that expand the chemical diversity of proteins in vivo. The GRO also exhibited increased resistance to T7 bacteriophage, demonstrating that new genetic codes could enable increased viral resistance.

We present genome engineering technologies that are capable of fundamentally reengineering genomes from the nucleotide to the megabase scale. We used multiplex automated genome engineering (MAGE) to site-specifically replace all 314 TAG stop codons with synonymous TAA codons in parallel across 32 Escherichia coli strains. This approach allowed us to measure individual recombination frequencies, confirm viability for each modification, and identify associated phenotypes. We developed hierarchical conjugative assembly genome engineering (CAGE) to merge these sets of codon modifications into genomes with 80 precise changes, which demonstrate that these synonymous codon substitutions can be combined into higher-order strains without synthetic lethal effects. Our methods treat the chromosome as both an editable and an evolvable template, permitting the exploration of vast genetic landscapes.

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are increasingly deployed at large scales and in open environments. Genetic biocontainment strategies are needed to prevent unintended proliferation of GMOs in natural ecosystems. Existing biocontainment methods are insufficient either because they impose evolutionary pressure on the organism to eject the safeguard, because they can be circumvented by environmentally available compounds, or because they can be overcome by horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Here we computationally redesign essential enzymes in the first organism possessing an altered genetic code to confer metabolic dependence on nonstandard amino acids for survival. The resulting GMOs cannot metabolically circumvent their biocontainment mechanisms using environmentally available compounds, and they exhibit unprecedented resistance to evolutionary escape via mutagenesis and HGT. This work provides a foundation for safer GMOs that are isolated from natural ecosystems by reliance on synthetic metabolites.

Recoding--the repurposing of genetic codons--is a powerful strategy for enhancing genomes with functions not commonly found in nature. Here, we report computational design, synthesis, and progress toward assembly of a 3.97-megabase, 57-codon Escherichia coli genome in which all 62,214 instances of seven codons were replaced with synonymous alternatives across all protein-coding genes. We have validated 63% of recoded genes by individually testing 55 segments of 50 kilobases each. We observed that 91% of tested essential genes retained functionality with limited fitness effect. We demonstrate identification and correction of lethal design exceptions, only 13 of which were found in 2229 genes. This work underscores the feasibility of rewriting genomes and establishes a framework for large-scale design, assembly, troubleshooting, and phenotypic analysis of synthetic organisms.

The challenges of evolution in a complex biochemical environment—coupling genotype to phenotype and protecting the genetic material—are solved elegantly in biological systems by nucleic acid encapsulation. In the simplest examples, viruses use capsids to surround their genomes. While these naturally occurring systems have been modified to change their tropism1 and to display proteins or peptides2–4, billions of years of evolution have favored efficiency at the expense of modularity, making viral capsids difficult to engineer. Synthetic systems composed of non-viral proteins could provide a “blank slate” to evolve desired properties for drug delivery and other biomedical applications, while avoiding the safety risks and engineering challenges associated with viruses. Here we create synthetic nucleocapsids—computationally designed icosahedral protein assemblies5, 6 with positively charged inner surfaces capable of packaging their own full-length mRNA genomes—and explore their ability to evolve virus-like properties by generating diversified populations using Escherichia coli as an expression host. Several generations of evolution resulted in drastically improved genome packaging (>133-fold), stability in whole murine blood (from less than 3.7% to 71% of packaged RNA protected after 6 hours of treatment), and in vivo circulation time (from less than 5 minutes to 4.5 hours). The resulting synthetic nucleocapsids package one full-length RNA genome for every 11 icosahedral assemblies, similar to the best recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors7, 8. Our results show that there are simple evolutionary paths through which protein assemblies can acquire virus-like genome packaging and protection. Considerable effort has been directed at “top-down” modification of viruses to be safe and effective for drug delivery and vaccine applications1, 9, 10; the ability to computationally design synthetic nanomaterials and to optimize them through evolution now enables a complementary “bottom-up” approach with considerable advantages in programmability and control.