Scientists at the University of York have uncovered the structure of an unusual enzyme which can be used to reverse the contamination of land by explosives.
The discovery, by scientists in the York Structural Biology Laboratory and the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products, will support the development of plants that can help tackle pollution caused by royal demolition explosive, also known as RDX.
Researchers at York have identified bacteria that use RDX as a food source and used that knowledge to develop transgenic plants that can draw pollutants out of the soil and break them down.
The latest findings, published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry, focus on the XplA enzyme which plays an important role in that process.
Dr Gideon Grogan, from the York Structural Biology Laboratory, said: “The biological process for tackling the pollution caused by RDX already exists but we need to find ways of making it work faster and on the scale required.
“This research significantly improves our understanding of the structure of this enzyme and is therefore an important step towards exploiting its unusual properties.”
Professor Neil Bruce, from the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products, said: “RDX is toxic and a possible carcinogen so it is important to identify ways of stopping it polluting land and water supplies.
“We have already had significant success in engineering plants that can perform this task and this research will help further refine that technique.”
The research is funded by the Centre of Excellence for Biocatalysis, Biotransformations and Biocatalytic Manufacture (CoEBio3), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) of the US Department of Defense.
- via york
Cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine, also known as RDX, cyclonite, hexogen, and T4, is an explosive nitroamine widely used in military and industrial applications. Nomenclature variants include cyclotrimethylene-trinitramine and cyclotrimethylene trinitramine.
In its pure, synthesized state RDX is a white, crystalline solid. As an explosive, it is usually used in mixtures with other explosives and plasticizers, phlegmatizers or desensitizers. It is stable in storage and is considered one of the most powerful and brisant of the military high explosives.[1]
- wikipedia
Because civilized explosives only kill quickly.
2 comments:
[...] Xenophilia (True Strange Stuff)- Bactieria to eat toxic and possibly cancer causing explosive pollut... what next? [...]
just a thought as a dog owner and environmentalist myself, do you know how much dog waste end up dumping in the landfills? Well, that's why I tell people to use flushable dog poop bags.
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