In China, scientists have assembled four synthetic yeast chromosomes, making it the second country after the US capable of designing and building eukaryotic genomes.The findings were published in today's edition of journal Science, marking a step closer to building synthetic life.<br/> <br/>Xinhua news agency reported that researchers with Tianjin University,Tsinghua University and BGI-Shenzhen have constructed the synthetic active chromosomes through exactly matching the synthetic genome with the designed sequence for the first time. In 2010, the US scientists succeeded in implanting a synthetic genome in a prokaryotic bacterium, marking the first step in chemical synthesis of living organisms.<br/> <br/>The new effort is part of a larger project to redesign and re-engineer yeast chromosomes, called the Synthetic Yeast Genome Project.