7 CONCLUDING REMARKS
Even after decades of research, there are large gaps in our knowledge that impede the comprehensive understanding of life. This applies from the smallest artificial organisms as well as to model organisms such asM. mycoides JCVI-syn3A and B. subtilis , respectively (Hutchison et al., 2016; Pedreira et al., 2022b). We are now in a position to get novel insights from global unbiased analyses which has already provided (Nicolas et al., 2012; O’Reilly et al., 2023) or will provide at least some initial minimal annotation for many of these proteins. This information is an excellent starting point for further analyses of unknown protein function in B. subtilis . The better understanding of these poorly studied proteins as well as of the poorly studied functions will be important to answer key scientific questions such as the identification of a minimal gene set to run a living cell, to develop new strategies in biotechnology, and will also stimulate the research with other bacteria, including important pathogens.