Question

If you were to genetically engineer a bacterium to clean up (bioremediate) an oil spill in the ocean, what features would you give this bacterium to enable it to grow and divide effectively in this environment, to metabolize the pollutants and to tolerate any environmental stressors that it would be exposed to?

Answer 1

If we want to create a genetically engineered bacteria which is able to degrade pollutants present in ocean water, then we need to insert a foreign gene into this bacteria. This for engineer will be isolated from some other organisms. The foreign gene will not go directly inside the bacteria, first this foreign gen will be used with the plasmid to form a Recombinant DNA molecule.

So we need to discuss in the question, the feature of the plasmid and the foreign gene which must be present in the genetically engineered bacteria.

The first feature is the presence of an origin of replication in the plasmid. This is the sequence on the DNA of plasmid which will help the plasmid to replicate itself independently of the chromosomal DNA of bacteria and to maintain stably.

The second feature is the presence of a selectable marker like resistance to antibiotics. This will help in the selection of transformed bacteria against non transformed bacteria. The transform the bacteria which has taken up the plasmid containing foreign gene will also contain the gene and coding for antibiotic resistance and therefore it will be able to grow in the presence of antibiotic where as non transformed Bateria will not grow.

The third feature is the presence of multiple cloning site from where the plasmid will be cut and the foreign gene will be inserted into it.

IV feature is the presence of Promoter in the plasmid made by which we can undergo the process of transcription.

The last feature of the Recombinant DNA molecule which contains the plasmid and the foreign gene is that the foreign gene should be isolated from the organism which is able to degrade pollutants. So inside the plasmid, the foreign gene will undergo transcription and translation to produce enzymes which can break down pollutants present in ocean water.

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