Morowitz points out that with approximately 500 protein products, the complete physiology of a simple organism was within reach. Pat Gillivet's project to sequence the Mycoplasma capricolum genome has many of the same goals. A Mycoplasma cell growing within the cytoplasm is also visible. Mycoplasma cells are approximately 0.3 microns in diameter, large enough to hold about 2 billion atoms. I believe it is time to start a concerted effort aimed at modelling the complete physiology of such simple cells, and at simplifying their genome and behaviorial complexity.
Several efforts are under way already into writing down such complete models.
One of the most advanced is the EcoCyc effort at defining an encyclopedic AI database on the physiology, sequence, and metabolism of Eschericia coli . Eschericia coli is without question the best studied of the prokaryotic cells, and there is an almost overwhelming literature on its metabolism and genetics. The E. coli DNA is shown here spread out following rupture of a bacterial cell. The central ruptured cell is approximately 2 microns long. Note that the DNA is structured into tens of small loops rather than consisting of a single circular loop.