Since the dawn of the industrial age, man has dumped millions of tons of toxic (as well as non-toxic) metals into the environment. Cleaning up this mess has been a herculean task, often creating more problems than solved. Now, scientists have been able to realize an old dream of using nature against nature, so to speak. Professor Norman Terry, a plant and microbial biologist with U. C. Berkeley has spearheaded a research to do just that, which was recently published in Environmental Science & Technology.

Indian Mustard Plant (Courtesy: Illinois Wild Flowers)The group used genetically modified plants to soak up toxic contaminants (selenium) from the ground, by upwards of 430% than normal. This process, known as Phytoremediation has been used off and on for the last two decades. Mostly, those approaches used normal breeding processes to boost the plant's cleaning abilities. Now, with genetic engineering, researchers are ready to usher in a slew of super-plants.
For the above trial, the plant Indian Mustard was used, which already has some natural ability to clean up toxic soils. Genetic engineering boosted this ability, and also ensured that the plant does not die due to the extra toxicity that it soaked up. Plans are afoot to augment cottonwood trees (by Applied PhytoGenetics) with a bacterial gene, that would allow them to absorb mercury from the soil.
In future, these technologies would not only clean up the environment, but also perhaps provide a new paradigm in mining operations. Of course, we might have unleashed more than we can chew, and only time will tell if these super-plants cause more problems than they solve.