Back in 2010, the first 'creation' of a 'synthetic' organism
was announced [1].
The 'synthetic organism' was mycoplasma, the smallest known
cell, many times smaller than a bacterium.
Like all such microbes, mycoplasma don't have a defined cell nucleus
like higher organisms, but have a single DNA-bearing structure ('chromosome').
What was actually synthesised was replica DNA of a sample mycoplasma. This had been manufactured in
computer-designed chunks, then assembled into a chromosome in yeast cells and
inserted into a mycoplasma cell whose chromosome had been extracted. The synbio-bug grew much as usual.
This technique offered promises of cheap, microbe-based
pharmaceuticals, fuels and environmental clean-up systems. However, as one professor of bio-ethics said
"This work has proceeded without any real regulation at all. The bad guys are out there. Weaponising all sorts of things will be much, much easier."
By 2014, 'synthetic biology' had come to mean a whole bag of
molecular tricks which, when applied to microbes managed somehow to create
'natural' products on an industrial scale [2].
Suddenly, consumers found themselves threatened with (unlabelled)
'synbio' food additives such as vanillin-flavouring, sweeteners, scents, and
fungicides for food and crops use.
The big money, however, will come from synbio fuels and
industrial chemicals. And all these
natural synthetic wee beasties will need to be fed.
Enter synthia to re-jig the metabolic pathways of bacteria
to feed off low-cost waste biomass, or even better, photosynthetic pathways so
that they can live on sunlight and waste carbon dioxide gas from factory
exhaust.
In agriculture, synthetic communities of synthetic microbes
are being assembled to sort out the soil we've been killing for decades. These will be added to seeds and soil to
increase crop yields and fight pests: they are, of course, to be marketed as an
environmentally-friendly and sustainable "complement" to
agri-chemicals.
Already, hundreds of "superior" microbial strains
have been tested in thousands of experimental plots across America.
In February 2016, US intelligence agencies added one of the
most subtle and versatile forms of synbio technology, 'gene editing' (which
makes precise changes in the DNA), to its list of "weapons of mass
destruction and proliferation". The
low-cost and technical ease, with which super-virulent human-, livestock-or
crop-pathogens could be created by gene-editing, puts it on a par with nuclear bombs,
chemical weapons and cruise missiles.
Of course, bacteria would be the easiest to convert into
synbio missiles, but killer mosquitoes and DNA-snipping human viruses are no
longer the stuff of sci-fi. Indeed,
"weaponising of all sorts of things" has moved within reach of the
bad guys out there.
OUR COMMENT
The biggest danger, however, may still be the inherent
unpredictability in every and all forms human meddling with DNA and its sister,
RNA. Sybio products, with who knows what
extra unexpected and unwanted qualities are heading for your food, your
medicines, your toiletries, your air, your body, your soil, and everywhere else
in the world as uncontainable microbes.
With all this being legally developed and funded by democratic
governments, philanthropists and multi-national companies, who needs weapons of
mass destruction?
Tell the governments in Westminster and Brussels to STOP the
unleashing of synbio madness.
Background:
[1] SAY NO TO SYNTHIA
- GMFS ARCHIVE, August 2010
[2] SYNTHETIC BIOLOGYCOMING SOON. IS IT NATURAL? - October 2014
SOURCES:
·
Outsmarting Nature: Synthetic Biology and
"Climate Smart" Agriculture, Heinrich Böll Foundation, www.etcgroup.org, 2015
·
Antonio Regalado, Genome editing is a weapon
of mass destruction, MIT Technology Review, 9.02.16
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