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Engineered Bacteria Glows To Reveal Land Mines
MikeChino writes "Sifting through minefields to remove hidden threats is a dangerous, tedious, and expensive process. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh recently announced that they have engineered a strain of bacteria that glows green in the presence of explosives, making mine detection a snap. The new strain of bacteria can be sprayed onto local affected areas or air-dropped over entire fields of mines. Within a few hours the bacteria strain begins to glow wherever traces of explosive chemicals are present."
It looks like the University of Edinburgh entered this project in the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition, so they have a project page with a lot of information. From what I gather, it would appear that the system is based on a system of enzymes that break down soil nitrites which have been linked to Green Fluorescent Protein. Nitrites are a natural byproduct of the breakdown of nitro-based explosives like TNT and PETN. Of course, soil nitrites from non-leaking landmine sources, like chemical fertilizers would also trigger fluorescence, so the team engineered a non-natural gene promoter protein. The genes to produce the fluorescent complex only get transcribed and translated into protein if the promoter is active. The activator for that promoter is a molecule of TNT, so the bacteria will only glow if TNT is present.
I'd also encourage people to take a look at the other iGEM projects. Lots of interesting reading.
"FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
Afghanistan comes in 4th according to this source. I was a little surprised that Egypt tops that list.
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