We have centuries contaminating the seas with mercury. We did not expect the solution to be genetic engineering
There is something that have volcanic eruptions, oil combustion, waste incineration, chemical substances or gold extraction: they release mercury in the environment. A mercury that ends up deposited in the waters, transformed into methylmercury for millions of microorganisms, stored in fish and, finally, served in our houses at lunchtime. We have a problem with methylmercury. That is obvious. The problem is that it is very difficult to solve. And that is not forcing ideas in another place. What exactly is methylmercury? Mercury is already a global concern due to its persistence in the environment, its ability to bioaccumulation in ecosystems and their important adverse effects on human health. But methylmercury, the most frequent organic form in the marine environment takes the palm. None of this would be a problem if it were not because, in addition, methylmercury is the form “more toxic and the most easily absorbable For living organisms, since it is highly liposoluble and has a great capacity to fix proteins and also shows a high degree of bioaccumulation. “ Is it dangerous? Well yes. High doses of this compound They are very toxic to the central nervous system and especially “for the brain in development of the fetus and in early childhood.” It can cause “mild behavioral problems, language disorders, memory losses, vision and auditory, learning difficulties and development delays.” And we do nothing to avoid it? Yes, we have tried several approaches. In 2013, governments around the world adopted the Minamata Agreement to try to control the “anthropogenic liberations of mercury and other compounds” derivatives. In fact, in the last decade the European Food Security Authority (and its national equivalents) They have been establishing increasingly strict criteria for food with risk of exposure to these compounds. The problem is that it is not easy to control that release and, for now, we cannot do much more than reduce risks. A solution … original. Now, some Australian scientists say they have discovered a new effective way to clean the methylmercury. The Macquarie University Research Team and the Australian Csiro has managed genetically fruit flies and zebra fish to transform methylmercury into a much less harmful gas that is dispersed in the air. The team has modified the DNA of these two animals to insert variants of bacteria genes that make them create two enzymes that can convert the methylmercury into elementary mercury. In general terms, we could say that they inactivate it. It does not become harmless, but its toxicity and bioaccumulation falls very significantly. Oh really? “It still seems to me that we can use synthetic biology to convert the most harmful form of mercury and evaporate it,” Kate Tepper explainedsynthetic biologist and main author of the article. And, indeed, almost science fiction sounds. It must be said that, obviously, we talk about an investigation in the early development phases and much remains to be checked. However, it is a very interesting result. Very dangerous and very loaded with ethical issues, but very interesting for the development of the genetic engineering of the future. Another thing is that we dare to get so far. Image | John Cameron In Xataka | This researcher has been poisoning a lake with mercury for 15 years to see what happens to the fish living inside: now, he finally has an answer
