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From 2013.igem.org

Human Practices

In biology and ecology, desiccation refers to the drying out of a living organism, plants are being exposed to sunlight or drought. Ecologists frequently study and assess various organisms' susceptibility to desiccation. Desiccation refers to an extreme environment where water is

When endeavoring upon this project it was of extreme importance that the team look at the ethical implications of this project. The positive outcomes of a successful project are easy to imagine. What’s more difficult is to imagine the negative side effects that are possible. This is what makes the consideration of the ethical grey areas so important. The ultimate goal of this project is the creation of a versatile desiccation toolkit of genes that can be inserted into a host organism to improve its resistance to desiccation, like the environment found in the desert. The applications of this can be for a multitude of different ideas and uses, however, the applications highlighted in the introduction include using the toolkit for use in aiding organisms that can perform bioremediation and an application can be to improve the resistance to desiccation for plants as a means of coping with desertification that is part of global climate change. The first application is for using the toolkit in bioremediation. The toolkit itself would not be part of the actual breakdown of toxins but would aid the organism that can do that metabolism in growing in climates that it cannot grow well in. There are microbial organisms that can break down things like heavy metals which are dangerous to humans if the pollution level is high enough. The ethical question that arises here is, is it safe to put microbes into soil, watered areas, etc to do this bioremediation? It is important first to understand the organisms and to be sure that they are not pathogenic to the ecosystem in the area. Cleaning up pollution from a mine, or industrial waste is futile if the organism does as much or more damage during the cleansing process. Thus it is important to carefully examine the target organisms to keep more harm than good from being done. Next there is the prevalent issue of global climate change. A working toolkit may be able to help aid plants in coping with the desertification associated with global climate change. The images below illustrate how desert areas are growing in mass every year. The toolkit itself is designed to help organisms handle a very dry, salt intense, or water poor environment. What arises are questions as to whether or not its a good idea to simply “cope” with global climate change instead of fighting it. It is important to understand that an application like this would not be a proverbial white flag against the changing world around us, but as a way to cope with changes that are happening now while green technology grabs a better foothold economically. Ethically speaking the toolkit is meant to help organisms grow in arid environments for the purposes of exploiting useful traits of the organisms such as bioremediation or to in general help the organism cope with the changing climate. These are simply the purposes that we as a team have come up with, however this is a versatile kit that may be used for other things but that is up to the discretion of the user. Our main focus was to make a simple kit that could be used effectively and safely to promote the health of a target organism in a dry climate.