When Jurassic Park Becomes Real

The nerd in me is really jumping for joy. An article published today in the journal Nature entitled "Biocontainment of genetically modified organisms by synthetic protein design" discusses experiments performed at Harvard, Boston University, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle that explain how to develop genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that won't present a threat to the natural environment. I really think this paper is where science fiction becomes reality and we have dinosaurs to thank. Let me explain:

We've all seen the movie Jurassic Park. I'm talking about the original movie and not the shitty sequels where a T-Rex is brought to America ( just watch King Kong...the Simpsons did it...) and some crappy pterodactyls escape from a bird cage in the incomprehensible third movie. But the original is awesome and Chris Pratt is going to make the new one awesome too. Anyway, in the original movie there is a discussion between the main characters about how the dinosaurs can't escape from the island because of a built in fail-safe. The game warden Robert Muldoon mentions something called the 'lysine contingency' and we as the audience learn that the dinosaurs were genetically modified so they are unable to naturally produce the amino acid Lysine. Lysine is an incredibly important natural compound in our own bodies and the dinosaurs carry a mutation in the gene that help process and create it. With this defective gene in place, the dinosaurs in the movie must rely on diet-fed lysine in order to survive. Thus, if a dinosaur escapes it will just die because it cannot produce lysine on its own. (We should ignore the fact that lysine can be found in food and plants and the dinosaurs just eat the plants and other plant-eating animals and all is fine. 'Life finds a way' as the saying goes!)

Regardless, the important concept here is that the dinosaurs were engineered in the movie to keep these 'dino-GMOs' from escaping. In the real world there has been growing concern that GMOs could escape from the laboratory and grow unchecked in the wild. Such that they overtake the natural varieties of species already found on our planet, out-compete them in a Darwinian fashion, grow uncontrollably, and then apocalypse. I'm being a little hyperbolic here but it really is a legitimate concern, even for scientists, but it is blown out of proportion by people who don't see the value in any type of GMO whatsoever. Even in spite of the fact that we will need adaptable plants and foods as our climate changes and as an alternate strategy to combat hunger and famine.

But what this paper details is a methodology in which scientists engineered a type of 'lysine contingency' into E. Coli bacterial strains whereby they cannot out-compete their natural, wild-type bacteria. Specifically, mutations were induced in several proteins which forces said proteins to incorporate a synthetic or non-traditional amino acid into its structure in lieu of a natural amino acid. For example, a specific protein may require the amino acid tyrosine in a very specific location in its structure in order to function properly. The researchers engineered these proteins to instead substitute a non-traditional amino acid (let's call this tyrosine*). Proteins with tryrosine* still function and form properly but tyrosine* is only fed to the bacteria by researchers and not found or incorporated into proteins naturally. It is very similar to the 'lysine contingency' in Jurassic Park.

I know what you are saying, well what if these bacteria overcome this? Life finds a way, right? This is true. In fact, the experiments identify a small percentage of the engineered bacteria which do survive when the unnatural amino acid is removed from the food. The bacteria found a way to divide and grow and compete with the natural E. coli in the environment. However, some bacteria were engineered with additional mutations in several other genes in combination and these 'triple mutants' did not escape their habitat, nor out-compete their natural counterparts. This is the key point. Bacteria can be engineered to require important synthetic or non-traditional amino acids that are fed to them in the laboratory, but when that food is taken away they die. They don't mutate and escape. Life doesn't find a way.

I'm excited about this because it's a giant step in the direction of addressing the safety concerns of GMOs. A lot more work needs to be done, especially if this will be taken into plant crops like rice or wheat or corn, but it is a very important and elegant proof of concept. And for those staunchly opposed to GMOs...well this is a big blow.