Biotechnology Against Pollution

Now presenting genetically altered cottonwood trees that absorb toxicity from soil.

News has it that biotechnologists in Connecticut, America have created a batch of genetically altered cottonwood trees that absorb mercury from contaminated soil. These genetically modified trees are expected to treat the mercury as a nutrient and draw the toxic element from the soil with their roots. Some of the mercury is expected to vaporize into the air, whereas most is stored in the tree. After several years of growth, the trees will be cut down and incinerated.

Biotechnology scores again

Similarly, elsewhere in America, researchers use transgenic Indian mustard plants to soak up dangerously high selenium deposits caused by irrigation. Still others are engineering trees to retain more carbon and thus combat global warming. 

Researchers/scientists conducting these extraordinary experiments envision a future in which plants can be used as an inexpensive, safer and more effective way of dealing with pollution. Biologists for decades have been trying to exploit the genetic mechanisms that let microscopic bugs survive in polluted places where most living things die.

The flip side?

You mean apart from fiddling with nature? People in the know, are troubled that these genetically modified cottonwood trees with their unnatural cleaning genes will contaminate naturally growing relatives. There are possibilities of the genes of one organism dictating the behavior of thousands of other organisms in a community. These genes may, in fact, influence the evolution of an entire ecosystem. Scary that! 

The future

Researchers propose to plant several large-scale experimental GM cottonwood forests in which the genetic diversity of the trees ranges from high to low so they can study how genetic variation in a dominant tree affects the rest of the community. 

But beyond that, they anticipate that they will be able to show that the communities of organisms these cottonwood trees support is a trait that is passed along to their offspring. That is, the progeny of a cottonwood tree are likely to support the same communities of organisms that their parents supported. Thus titling the natural balance of things just a little bit and correcting itself in time.

In conclusion

The world as we know will keep on changing. Will getting the natural order of things tailor-made, remedy our own mistakes? It is definitely cost friendly and money talks, but will it be eco-friendly in the long run? Only time will tell.