Transgenic System for Soil Remediation

Researchers have developed the first transgenic system for removing arsenic from the soil by using genetically modified plants. Their work was reported in the October 6, 2002, issue of Nature Biotechnology.

The researchers inserted two genes from the common bacterium Escherichia coli that allow a member of the mustard family called Arabidopsis to tolerate arsenic, usually lethal to plants. Arabidopsis can then remove arsenic from the soil and transport it to the plant's leaves in a form that is far less biologically available in the environment. When the healthy plants are harvested, much of the arsenic pollution, once in the soil, can be removed from the site. In tests, 96-100% of arsenic in leaves was reduced to arsenite and bound by sulphur, making the system highly effective.

Arsenic contamination is an enormous worldwide problem. The new strategy, called phytoredmediation, cleans polluted soil through the use of plants that sequester poisons and make them less harmful.

"Our data demonstrate the first significant increase in arsenic tolerance and what we call ‘hyperaccumulation' by genetically engineered plants,” said Dr. Richard Meagher, of the University of Georgia (Athens, USA; www.uga.edu) and one of the researchers.





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