The Genetic Engineering Experiment That Sparked A Doomsday Myth

Food security is one of the greatest global challenges today. As Earth's population increases, the supply of arable land and clean water decreases. This makes the ability to grow enough food for everyone on ever smaller plots of land and with less water an increasingly important issue. As with many critical issues, sometimes people overreact and make mistakes. One such overreaction led to a doomsday scenario that was fortunately avoided, but not before an entire line of research in genetic engineering of bacteria for plant waste decomposition was abandoned.

Genetic modification of organisms really took off in the late 1980s and 1990s, when it seemed like this technology could solve a multitude of problems. One promising organism for use in genetic modification was Klebsiella planticola, a bacteria intended to ferment plant waste and produce ethanol for fuel. However, research published in 1999 raised alarm bells when one of its authors, Elaine Ingham, claimed that using the post-processed waste as compost to grow food could end all plant life on the planet.

Remember Gregor Mendel's experiments with garden peas, from high school biology? He was the first to quantify how traits are passed down from one generation to the next. This knowledge has enabled humans to develop organisms with specific qualities. Of course, humans had done this for millennia before understanding the mechanism. Crossing parent organisms and saving the seeds of offspring with desirable traits slowly and carefully turned grasses into wheat and corn, for example.

Genetic modification allows this process to happen much faster, by inserting DNA from one organism into another organism. This technology has produced innovations like the unlamented Flavr Savr tomato and the colorful GloFish. In K. planticola's case, a plasmid from another bacteria, Zymomonas mobilis, was inserted to increase its ability to produce ethanol.

The modified K. planticola could then be used to ferment the xylose in plants. Xylose is a simple sugar found in the cell walls of most land plants. The modified K. planticola was much more efficient at fermenting xylose to produce ethanol, making it an attractive source of biofuel.

The doomsday scenario emerged, however, when Dr. Ingham testified before the New Zealand Royal Commission on Genetic Modification in 2001, claiming that the genetically modified K. planticola could persist in the postprocessed waste and spread into the environment. From there it could then kill any plant it encountered by producing alcohol in the soil.

Ingham's testimony was questioned by additional researchers who concluded that there was no scientific basis for her claims and Ingham issued a formal apology to the Royal Commission. Although this particular nightmare never materialized, research on other genetically modified organism (GMOs) continues.

Humans have always been good at manipulating their environment for maximum productivity. We continue to develop new ways to manipulate GMO crops for increased yield, added flavor, or improved nutrition. In most cases, these changes are beneficial. But genetic modification is complicated. The debate continues about whether GMOs such as Roundup Ready corn are helpful or harmful. It could be only a matter of time before a GMO causes another problem we haven't foreseen.