Israeli scientists have revealed a potential weapon in the battles against air pollution, deforestation and climate change: bacteria engineered to eat carbon dioxide (CO2) from the environment.
Prof. Ron Milo’s plant and environmental sciences research lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science published a report on the study in Cell on November 27.
Milo’s team spent nearly a decade using rational design, genetic engineering and a sped-up version of evolution to create unique CO2-eating E. coli bacteria.
First, they identified the genes that plants use for the process of carbon fixation – taking carbon from CO2 and turning it into protein, DNA and other biological molecules. Many of these genes were already present in the bacteria. Others could be added or modified.
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