To address the concern about 2,4-DNT pollution, Jian-Jie Gao from the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China, et al. have designed engineered rice plants that can consume and utilize 2,4-DNT. The team constructed a vector with a 2,4-DNT degradative pathway that included five biodegradative enzymes with eight gene expression cassettes in a tandem manner. The recombinant vector was transformed in seven-day-old immature zygotic rice embryos. The seedlings of the dinitrotoluene scavenger plants and the wild-type plants were exposed to 2,4-DNT-containing soil. After 30 days, the dinitrotoluene scavenger plants showed greater fresh weight and shoot length than the wild type. The dinitrotoluene scavenger plants also completely degraded the 2,4-DNT in the soil, with relatively higher concentrations of degradation intermediates (pyruvate and propionyl-CoA) in the plants. Pyruvate and propionyl-CoA are the end products from the breakdown of 2,4-DNT and can be transformed into acetyl-CoA for the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Overall, the carbon from 2,4-DNT was harvested and converted into nutrition/energy and recycled in plants.
Soil and groundwater contamination impacts crop growth, food quality and the environment. Sustainable technologies such as phytoremediation offer a more practicable approach to reducing the likelihood of hazardous substances entering the food chain. Here, Gao et al. provide an example of engineering rice as a solution for sustainable agriculture and a circular economy. Traditional breeding combined with genetic modification could have the potential to explore more plant species for decomposing contaminants for sustainable development.
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