Chris Browne, UR - The Latest Regulation

Colorized scanning electron micro-graph of E. coli 

     The search for bacteria continues. Where is it, how much is there, and what kind of bacteria is beneficial or harmful to the environment. Two examples are the ever-changing understanding of bacteria and its environment, as well as the human environment in which it can found. Genetically modified bacteria can effect a natural environment, and there are new experiments to try to do this in a beneficial way. Nutrient-Control for GM Bacteria, is a recent and current attempt to use GM bacteria to correct an environment in the positive way. Genetically modified bacteria that don’t survive unless given an unnatural amino acid could serve 

as a new control measure to protect wild organisms 

and ecosystems against accidental release.

     Genetic switches have made headlines recently, as researchers engineer ways to prevent organisms built or modified in the lab from escaping to the wild. Limiting the growth of a genetically modified (GM) E. coli strain when the environment lacks unnatural, or no canonical, animal acids (NCAAs). NCAAs have been used to expand or alter the genetic code of various organisms. But by re-engineering the antibiotic resistance gene TEM-1 β-lactamase to only produce a protein. When provided with the necessary NCAA, however, the E. coli can live for hundreds of generations.

Human blood prepared on a slide 

     So how much bacteria is on and in us? How important is this bacteria, and what does that mean for the average person? Microbiologist Thomas Luckey, who in 1972 estimated that the number of microbial cells in and on the human body outnumbers those carrying the human genome by 10 to 1, was wrong: people are not more microbe than human, scientists now suggest. “The numbers are similar enough that each defecation event may flip the ratio to favor human cells over bacteria,” “One-to-one is pretty impressive,” Judah Rosner, a molecular biologist at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digest,                                                                                          “There’s as much of them as there is of us.”

     Of course, the new estimate could be off, the researchers noted, as it’s based on existing experimental data that could inform an assessment of human and microbial cell counts, such as estimates of bacteria in 1 gram of feces and data on the length of the human colon. Moreover, the team only considered bacteria; virus, fungi, and other microbes could push that ratio up. So with so much bacteria where does it all go? and how might humans impact the local environment? All questions to research in my project on the bacteria found in Canal Street Outlet. On to the experiment.

~CMB

Ellington, A. (2016, Jan). Nutrient-Control for GM Bacteria. Retrieved from Scientist: http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/45130/title/Nutrient-Control-for-GM-Bacteria/

Luchey, T. (2016, Jan). Counting Cells. Retrieved from Scientist: http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/45039/title/Counting-Cells/