2004 Volume 32 Issue 3 Pages 169-172
One of the long-range goals of structural and functional genomics is the interpretation of all fundamental biological phenomena at the atomic level. We expected to accomplish this by identifying the structure and function of all biological molecules making up the human body. However, Homo sapiens contains more than 30,000 proteins, and these proteins are rather unstable for structural and functional analyses. It is estimated that the minimum gene set essential for a free living organism is about 1,000. Microorganisms living in extreme environments often have approximately this number of genes. Therefore, in 1995（Kuramitsu et al. (1995) Protein Eng. 8, 964-964; Yokoyama et al. (2000) Nature Struct. Biol. 7, 943-945; http://www.thermos.org）, we proposed that one such organism should be selected and an attempt made to understand the mechanisms of all the biological phenomena occurring in it by investigating the components’ molecular functions at the atomic level on the basis of their three-dimensional structures. The organism had to be selected on the basis of two criteria: (a) the organism has a “gene manipulating system”, and (b) it is “the most thermophilic” organism among organisms that meet criterion (a). These criteria led us to select the extreme thermophile Thermus thermophilus HB8, which is a Gram-negative eubacterium about 5 μm in length and capable of growing at 85℃. We named the project "The Structural and Functional Whole-Cell Project for Thermus thermophilus HB8." This project is intended to be carried out in four steps: (1) structural genomics step; (2) functional genomics step; (3) detailed analysis step of each molecule; and (4) system biology step (simulation of whole biological phenomena). This “Structural and Functional Whole-Cell Project” represents the first step toward the “atomic biology” of the 21st century, following on the heels of the “molecular biology” that characterized the 20th century.
