How effective in GM Food bioremidiation?

Expert response from David Oppenheimer

Associate Professor, University of Florida

Thursday, 18/12/2014 22:48

Your question is a bit broad, so I’m going to address how effective GM plants are in bioremediation. Genetic engineering techniques are very useful in helping with bioremediation. For example, certain plants have been used to help decontaminate polluted soils. The plants can absorb certain pollutants through their roots, and transport them to the above ground parts of the plants, which can then be harvested and disposed of properly. Using plants to clean up contaminated soils is called phytoremediation, and it can be vastly less expensive to use than the current accepted practice of digging up contaminated soil and reburying it somewhere else. Genetic engineering techniques can be used to make this process even more efficient, or more applicable to different types of soils or different geographical locations. 

 

References for More Information

• A citizen's guide to phytoremediation 

• EPA site for phytoremediation

• Nice graphical summaries of phytoremediation (scroll down)

• Krämer U, Chardonnens AN. The use of transgenic plants in the bioremediation of soils contaminated with trace elements. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2001 Jun;55(6):661-72.