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TOBACCO is the surprising role model for a range of plant species that could be genetically-modified (GM) to suck toxins from the environment.

A UK researcher has adapted the tobacco plant for use in cleaning up poisoned lakes.

Pascal Drake, a researcher at the Centre for Infection at St George's University of London, spliced a hybrid gene predominantly from a mouse into a tobacco plant, causing it to produce an antibody that binds to microcystin-LR.  Microcystin-LR is a poison produced by algal blooms that makes still water unsafe for drinking, swimming and fishing.

Drake’s discovery is the latest in a string of research products focussed on dealing with the problem of microcystin, which can survive conventional water treatment processes including chlorination, flocculation, sand filtration and sedimentation. Scientists have developed handheld detection methods to flag poisons slipping through treatment works and bacteria, which naturally metabolise microcystin that could mop them up on the way out.

The toxins are not only a problem for water treatment works – they also take hold of natural bodies of freshwater, especially still lakes.

“Microcystin is a worldwide problem,” Drake tells tce “but especially in the developing world where it has been linked to cancers. We hope that our study will ultimately lead to a reduction in the exposure of humans, livestock, and wildlife to environmental pollutants.”

He admits there is still much work to be done before the method is rolled out. Tobacco is only a model species he says, and applying the technology will require scientists to modify a more appropriate species such as aquatic plants. While he sees no technological barriers to modifying them he believes public perceptions may need to change before the technology is used. “It depends on a changing attitude towards GM plants,” he says.

Once acceptable, the method will open the door to whole range of environmental cures. Drake says plants can be modified to express “a whole host” of antibodies that will remove harmful chemicals from the environment and prevent them from contaminating the food chain.

Research published in FASEB Journal doi: 10.1096/fj.09-140848