GM sentries to help environment

12 March 1999

GM sentries to help environment

GENETICALLY modified (GM) organisms have been developed that can alert people to the dangers of pollutants and protect the environment, reports The Daily Telegraph.

Scientists at UMIST, the technological university in Manchester, have created GM yeast strains that contain a jellyfish gene which makes them glow green when their DNA is damaged.

The GM yeast glows when its repair mechanisms are activated in response to pollutants or cancer-causing chemicals.

The Institute of Terrestrial Ecology at Monks Wood, Cambridge, is investigating how to put light-emitting genes from marine bacteria into soil bacteria to reveal soil pollutants.

• The Daily Telegraph 12/03/99 page 12