Scientists has adapted E.coli bacteria so that they consume carbon dioxide instead of food. They achieved this by genetically modifying the bacteria’s digestive system, and then forcing them to evolve in a specific way across generations.
Ron Milo, lead researcher at Israel’s Weizmann Institute, said the next step is to “understand the genetic basis of the laboratory evolution process, and then to adapt the cells further into being able to work at ambient atmospheric conditions” – ie, to continue feeding on carbon dioxide instead of sugar when in the outside world.
If successful, such modified bacteria could one day be used to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and store it as energy at a massive scale, or to create crops with higher yields.
The work of the institute is significant because of the way the researchers have ‘reprogrammed’ the bacteria – turning an organism that consumes sugar and produces CO2 (like humans do) into one that consumes CO2 and produces sugar in order to grow (like plants do).
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Scientists has adapted E.coli bacteria so that they consume carbon dioxide instead of food. They achieved this by genetically modifying the bacteria’s digestive system, and then forcing them to evolve in a specific way across generations.
Ron Milo, lead researcher at Israel’s Weizmann Institute, said the next step is to “understand the genetic basis of the laboratory evolution process, and then to adapt the cells further into being able to work at ambient atmospheric conditions” – ie, to continue feeding on carbon dioxide instead of sugar when in the outside world.
If successful, such modified bacteria could one day be used to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and store it as energy at a massive scale, or to create crops with higher yields.
The work of the institute is significant because of the way the researchers have ‘reprogrammed’ the bacteria – turning an organism that consumes sugar and produces CO2 (like humans do) into one that consumes CO2 and produces sugar in order to grow (like plants do).