Nature: scientists develop safety methods for manufacturing genetically modified organisms

Two papers recently published by nature describe a new method for manufacturing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) The growth of GMOs developed by this method depends on synthetic nutrients, so as to avoid the unexpected growth and diffusion in the wild environment These strategies are believed to have the potential to improve the safety of genetically modified organisms considered for deployment in open systems Genetically modified organisms have many practical uses, including the production of drugs and fuels; the deployment of genetically modified organisms in open systems, such as the use of genetically modified organisms to remove pollutants from a contaminated area of biological governance, requires robust control to ensure its deployment in open systems Although some safety measures have been designed to control growth, such as making these microorganisms rely on some natural nutrients to grow, or inserting "cut-off switch" into their genes, these methods may lose effect due to the symbiosis or variation of nutrients between microorganisms Two new manufacturing strategies described in nature allow transgenic organisms to grow only in the presence of synthetic amino acids, a basic unit for building life Yale University Farren Isaac and his colleagues have created a series of genetically modified organisms that rely on synthetic amino acids The expression of multiple essential genes in these organisms requires synthetic amino acids In another study, George Church of Harvard Medical School and the research team redesigned an essential enzyme in a genetically modified organism, making the metabolism of the genetically modified organism depend on the synthetic amino acids The gene changes of the essential enzyme spread throughout the genome, making it more difficult to remove the changed gene sequence In the case described in these two papers, if there is no synthetic amino acid, the organism can not use alternative nutrients as supplement, and it seems to be able to resist mutations that improve the survival ability of the organism in the field, thanks to the genetic modification of multiple sites.