Genetically modified bacteria
Genes and other genetic information from a wide range of organisms can be added to a plasmid and inserted into bacteria for storage and modification.
[6] Scientists can easily manipulate and combine genes within the bacteria to create novel or disrupted proteins and observe the effect this has on various molecular systems.
[8][9][10] Bacteria have been used in the production of food for a very long time, and specific strains have been developed and selected for that work on an industrial scale.
The bacteria can be modified to operate more efficiently, reduce toxic byproduct production, increase output, create improved compounds, and remove unnecessary pathways.
[11] Food products from genetically modified bacteria include alpha-amylase, which converts starch to simple sugars, chymosin, which clots milk protein for cheese making, and pectinesterase, which improves fruit juice clarity.
The species Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis can be genetically engineered to synthesise and excrete chymosin,[13] providing a more efficient means of production.
The use of bacteria to synthesise chymosin also provides a vegetarian method of cheesemaking, as previously, young ruminants (typically calves) had to be slaughtered to extract the enzyme from the stomach lining.
[14] Prior to recombinant protein products, several treatments were derived from cadavers or other donated body fluids and could transmit diseases.
[15] With greater understanding of the role that the microbiome plays in human health, there is the potential to treat diseases by genetically altering the bacteria to, themselves, be therapeutic agents.
Crops have been inoculated with Rhizobia (and more recently Azospirillum) to increase their production or to allow them to be grown outside their original habitat.
The bacteria that naturally colonise certain crops have also been modified, in some cases to express the Bt genes responsible for pest resistance.
Genetic engineering can increase the levels of the enzymes used to degrade a toxin or to make the bacteria more stable under environmental conditions.
[29] GM bacteria have also been developed to leach copper from ore,[30] clean up mercury pollution[31] and detect arsenic in drinking water.
In the 1980s artist Joe Davis and geneticist Dana Boyd converted the Germanic symbol for femininity (ᛉ) into binary code and then into a DNA sequence, which was then expressed in Escherichia coli.
