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Week in Science

A little weed goes a long way
Imagine if you were a mutated weed. That would be about the lowest of the low. But now imagine if you were a mutated weed that saved the world. Not such a bad deal. Researchers at Texas A&M have been using mutated versions of the weed Arabidopsis thaliana to study salt stress in plants for many years. Other researchers are using mutated versions of the plant to study HIV. In fact, because we know the sequence of its entire genome, Arabidopsis has long been a darling of the test subject community. The work in Texas has centered around a particular gene, AtCPL which plays an important role in controlling a cell’s DNA-directed response to stress, and a particular protein, AtHKT1, which mediates the uptake of salt into cells. By manipulating these two processes to reduce salt uptake, researchers hope to create crop plants that can grow in high salt environments, thus rendering the last bastions of untouched land vulnerable to intrusion by industrial agriculture.

On the HIV side of things, mutant strains of Arabidopsis have led to the discovery of genes for four different types of proteins, called CTD phosphatases, which are targets of the proliferating HIV virus in cells. By lowering the expression of phosphatases in human cells, researchers hope to slow the spread of the virus. And finally, imagine this: one little weed, contributing to the fight against AIDS and hunger when the wealthiest government in the world can’t seem to do much about either of them.

—Carter Romansky

Irrational bacteria
When faced with the option of eating a juicy apple or the insecticide endosulfan that protects the fruit from bugs, any rational being would choose the apple. After all, apples are yummy and endosulfan is a dangerous pesticide that can affect the central nervous system, kidney, liver, and other parts of the body.

But for two strains of bacteria, the endosulfan is the food. Consequences of a study conducted at UC Riverside that were published in the current issue of the Journal of Environmental Quality show that these bacteria digest between 80% to 90% of the endosulfan in a particular sample in 15 days. The outcome of the experiment suggests these bacteria are a valuable source of endosulfan degradation, and may be used for the detoxification of contaminated soils, waste dumps, water bodies, and other polluted areas.

The process of bacteria digesting chemical pollutants, called bioremediation, is considered a cost-effective technology to cleanup contaminants, including pesticides. Endosulfan is a cholorinated insecticide (similar to DDT) that is widely used all over the world, including the U.S., and can be present in air, water, and soil. Once entering the environment, endosulfan can take years to break down, and besides posing a risk to humans, can infiltrate the food chain and damage delicate ecosystems as well.

—Justin Bandy

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