When dealing with bacteria in a lab setting, it is often a requirement to ensure that the risk of the bacteria escaping from containment is as minimized as possible…In most situations when dealing with genetically modified bacteria, this isn’t the case…[If a modified] E. coli somehow got into the wild, it would not be able to survive and compete against its wild-type relatives….
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[However,] scientists have worked in the past and present to come up with biocontainment methods that eliminate risk of escape.The first is to engineer a so-called “suicide switch” into the bacteria’s genes…[and the] second trick is to enact a nutritional dependence within the bacteria.
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Researchers at Hiroshima University in Japan [found a cheaper alternative when they looked at] Pseudomonas stutzeri, which are able to process phosphite and hypophosphite into usable forms.
[In the study,] the scientists knocked out all the other bacterial genes allowing it to transport phosphate and transgenically added in the phosphite transporter…[As a result] this modified E. coli line [has] the best and lowest frequency of escape mutant generation yet.[Read the full study here]
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: How To Control GMOs: Biocontainment and Genetically Modified Bacteria
