Team:Wageningen UR/Safety/Two

Would the materials used in your project and/or your final product pose risks to environmental quality if released by design or accident?

There are several scenarios in which unintentional release of genetically modified material could take place. Labeling of the lab equipment and glassware used is necessary to prevent loss and improper waste disposal by a fellow researcher. The following problems are not as easy to prevent.

The air filtering system will have a hard time in keeping aerosols in the lab when a window gets broken. If this happens through a thunderstorm, an electricity break-down is not unlikely and would increase the chance of release furthermore. Under Good Microbial Practice, though, the formation of aerosols is prevented as much as possible, thus the combination of these probabilities leaves a total probability that is not that high.

In transport from one end of the lab to the other, there is however a chance the transporter falls and cuts themself with the broken glassware containing hazardous biological material. There is a high probability of infection in this case. For our project organism a remedy would be available, to treat the disease that could be developed. Still, routes through the lab must remain clear of tripping hazards.

All waste containing genetically modified organisms is required to be sterilized by autoclaving before disposal. Direct actions should be taken if it is discovered that an autoclave has been malfunctioning after the waste is discarded outside of the lab. To reduce the risk on environmental contamination it is necessary to check upon the autoclave’s functionality (by monitoring its operational temperature). If the aforementioned hazards do occur, they should be reported to the Minister of ‘Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment’ and involved institutions to make the hazards undone as soon as possible.

The usage of antibiotic resistance markers increases the chance of spreading antibiotic resistance to pathogens. By conjugation, transduction or natural genetic transformation, DNA can be transferred between bacteria. There is a chance the antibiotic resistance genes end up in a pathogenic bacterium which is not intrinsically resistant to antibiotics. However, this hazard is present in most molecular microbiology research.

The physical conditions outside the lab are harsh to the E. coli strain chassis that is used, so the bacterium would be unable to grow. The DNA of the BioBrick system will not be widely spread right after (un)intentional release. By means of natural genetic transformation the DNA of the BioBrick system could be taken up by other bacteria. As expression of the plasmid would incur a significant metabolic burden on a (probably non-pathogenic) soil bacterium, and do little to increase its fitness, it is considered unlikely that the plasmid would be propagated. Unfortunately it is not possible to know in advance what the actual effect of a natural transformation would be, but the odds seem to be in favor of it to cause little impact on the environment.