Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Scientists create artificial organisms that depend on lab food to stop their spread


Future artificial organisms may come with better built-in brakes to prevent their spread, two papers published in the journal Nature suggest. That may make genetically modified organisms safer for use outside the lab.


Some people worry that GMOs might spread widely beyond their intended use, damaging the environment. Today, two groups of scientists announced they've created modified E. coli strains that requires lab-made food in order to survive — so if any of these altered E. coli make it to the wild, they're toast.


GMOs can evolve ways to shut down "kill switches"


Other kinds of containment exist for GMOs. One strategy is to disable their ability to make certain kinds of essential nutrients — but this strategy isn't foolproof, since...


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