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New Advance Confines GMOs To the Lab Instead of Living In the Wild
BarbaraHudson (3785311) writes In Jurassic Park, scientists tweak dinosaur DNA so that the dinosaurs were lysine-deficient in order to keep them from spreading in the wild. Scientists have taken this one step further as a way to keep genetically modified E. coli from surviving outside the lab.
In modifying the bacteria's DNA to thwart escape, two teams altered the genetic code to require amino acids not found in nature. One team modified the genes that coded for proteins crucial to cell functions so that that produced proteins required the presence of the synthetic amino acid in the protein itself. The other team focused on 22 genes deemed essential to a bacterial cell's functions and tied the genes' expression to the presence of synthetic amino acids.
For the bacteria to survive, these synthetic amino acids had to be present in the medium on which the bacteria fed. In both cases, the number of escapees was so small as to be undetectable."
Isn't this how they kept the dinosaurs from escaping in the first Jurassic Park book? And we all know how well that worked out... CHAOS THEORY!
we all know how well that worked out
A mutation in the DNA undoes the genetic engineering and we've got a new strain of e. coli in the wild.
What happens when the human body naturally evolves to depend on this amino acid itself? I guess if you keep eating such GMO's you'll be okay? Win-Win for the corporations again (and a few decades to late to try and contain their absolutely ridiculous public testing).
All it takes is one mutation and the microbe is ready to survive in the wild and potentially fall into the wrong hands. What the hell is wrong with people that they think they are smarter than mother nature? This is what microbes do. This is how the have survived billions of years in wildly varying conditions. Our arrogance will kill us all someday.
God Kills Dinosaur
Got Creates Man
Man Kills God
Man Creates Dinosaur
Dinosaur Kills Man
``the number of escapees was so small as to be undetectable``.
This doesn`t exactly sound encouraging. Even one escapee out of trillions of bacteria, through the wonder of exponential clonal replication, will result in escape. This method might buy a day or two. And I haven`t even mentioned natural selections proclivity to ruin even the most well thought out containment schemes. And that messing with the basic cell machinery will greatly reduce the viability (and economic productivity) of these bugs.
"Life uhh finds a way uhh" - Jeff Goldblum
http://news.firedoglake.com/20...
The provision protects genetically modified seeds from litigation in the face of health risks and has thus been dubbed the “Monsanto Protection Act” by activists who oppose the biotech giant. President Barack Obama signed the spending bill, including the provision, into law on Tuesday
Since the act’s passing, more than 250,000 people have signed a petition opposing the provision and a rally, consisting largely of farmers organized by the Food Democracy Now network, protested outside the White House Wednesday. Not only has anger been directed at the Monsanto Protection Act’s content, but the way in which the provision was passed through Congress without appropriate review by the Agricultural or Judiciary Committees. The biotech rider instead was introduced anonymously as the larger bill progressed — little wonder food activists are accusing lobbyists and Congress members of backroom dealings.
This is exactly how the first genetically modified bacteria were designed in ('60s-'70s). Look up the Berg moratorium and thereabouts. Oh, wait... there was no internet in those times...
i like dinosaurs .i wish they were real :)
It is unfortunate that the summary author needed to toss in the remark about Jurassic Park. It's not a meaningful comparison (and is, indeed, based on a technical mistake in the book), and it doesn't appear in the linked article. As the earlier comments suggest, it does generate interest based on the pop culture reference. It's sad to see that Slashdot and its contributors resort to that kind of cheap chicanery to grab eyeballs, just like all the other loud, integrity-free, "journalism" outlets that seem to pervade the internet.
They said the same thing about the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.
Dr. Alan Grant: [finding egg shells] Oh my God. Do you know what this is? This is a dinosaur egg. The dinosaurs are breeding.
Tim: But Grandpa said all the dinosaurs were girls.
Dr. Alan Grant: Amphibian DNA.
Lex: What's that?
Dr. Alan Grant: Well, on the tour, the film said they used frog DNA to fill in the gene sequence gaps. They mutated the dinosaur genetic code and blended it with that of a frog's. Now, some West African frogs have been known to spontaneously change sex from male to female in a single sex environment. Malcolm was right. Look...
[we see a trail of baby dinosaur footprints]
Dr. Alan Grant: Life found a way
So they are letting modified E.Coli out into the wild. And they can't detect it, and who honestly knows if some mutation is or is not going to allow the bacteria to still live and thrive.
How to they propose to prevent these lab E. coli from mutating the ability to survive in the wild?
And now they can sell farmers the missing ingredient!
finds a way
Why don't they just cut their legs off so they can't run away ?
Way back in the 1970s, a scientist named Roy Curtiss engineered Chi-1776: a strain of E. Coli for precisely these purposes. It was unable to synthesize d-amino pimelic acid, it couldn't exchange plasmids(*) with other bacteria, it was killed by detergents and UV radiation, and so on.
It was subsequently discovered that the survival of Chi-1776 was greatly enhanced when a plasmid commonly used for research was added.
Chi-1776 was also found difficult to work with. The very safeguards that made it safe for experimental use also made it difficult to grow. In fermentors it was outcompeted by just about everything else in the environment, so absolutely sterile environments were required, and this turns out to be very difficult in practice.
In response, researchers turned to a strain labelled K-12 which had a higher survival rate than Chi-1776, but couldn't infect the digestive tract and also couldn't survive in the wild.
Also, despite strict procedures in place for chemical or physical disinfection, K-12 was subsequently found in the sewer systems supporting the University of Texas.
Those who cannot remember history are doomed to repeat it, or so they say. Does that statement apply to the current situation?
(*) A plasmid is a "loop" of DNA that is sometimes exchanged between bacteria. It's a method of propagating useful survival traits without going through the full reproductive cycle.
Uh... uh... Life.... Uh... Finds a way.
So what happens....
It always escapes, adapts, finds alternatives, worse IT MUTATES, MATES, MORPHS with existing E. Coli, and slowly eradicates E. Coli.
Oh that's great you say, NO IT'S NOT!!!! Believe it not you NEED E. Coli bacteria. There are numerous varietes, many are beneficial to the digestive track. Some are bad, but many facilitate digestion.
mate
the end is near
Yes, it's possible, but very very unlikely.
That means over a long enough time, it will happen.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Next step: human trials
So this was ketrelcel white. An artificial amino acid their bodies needed but could not find in nature. What a way to make slave soldiers.
Scary when ppl start thinking they are as smart as nature
It's life, Jim, but not as we know it.
- blade runner reference
...to make an alteration in the evolvement of an organic life system is fatal. A coding sequence cannot be revised once it's been established.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
" ... the number of escapees was so small as to be undetectable." Until the undetectable escapees start multiplying and sudeenly they're detectable.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Ketracel-white
uh, uh, finds a way...
Before you know it the microbes will escape and we will all be dead.