This is an enormous topic and one of great complexity. Genetic modification means artificially changing the genetic material of an organism. The term genetic modification and genetic engineering are interchangeable. Genes can be moved between species, and between different levels of biological microorganism.
GMO have a wide range of applications, particularly in agriculture and medicine Economic benefits of genetic modification are many.Some of these benefits are by means of development of existing primary industries. Development of highly skilled work force, attraction of foreign investment and generation of intellectual property are some of the benefits .
In the search for solutions to cut atmospheric carbon dioxide, scientists at the University of Georgia's Bioenergy Systems Research Institute think they could have a winner. A genetically modified microorganism in their lab not only captures CO2, but processes it directly to make a valuable chemical. A further tweak may even get it to make fuel. - See more at:
http://www.forumforthefuture.org/greenfutures/articles/modified-microorganism-captures-co2#sthash.08B8dFJS.dpuf
Michael Adams, of UGA's Bioenergy Systems Research Institute, helped develop a microorganism that could produce fuel from atmospheric CO2.The team modified the organism so that is able to feed at lower temperatures. They then used hydrogen gas to create a chemical reaction in the microorganism that incorporates CO2 into 3-hydroxypropionic acid, a common industrial chemical that can be used to make acrylics and other products.www.gizmag.com/atmospheric-carbon dioxide...microorganism/26836
Thank Dr.Kelmn for the information.The course will immensely help students working in the area of biohydrometallurgy.I also work in the area of biohydrometallurgy.
The active genes of the microbes that play significant role in bioremediation of specific substances can be compiled for efficient and enhanced rate of clean-up which is the need of the day.
A most exciting development over the last few years is the application genetic engineering techniques to enzyme technology.In the future, enzymes may be redesigned to fit more appropriately into industrial processes; for example, making glucose isomerase less susceptible to inhibition by the Ca2+ present in the starch saccharification processing stream.
In the UK, a team of researchers at the University of Exeter have engineered the bacterium Escherichia coli to produce pure diesel fuel which is nearly identical to the conventional form used in current supplies.
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_281715_en.html
A modified strain of Salmonella could be used to efficiently deliver antigens, the key ingredients of vaccines, into human cells, a study suggests.Modified bacteria could be used in vaccines Salmonella bacteria use nanoscopic needles to inject their own proteins into host cells, enabling them to survive and replicate inside those cells. In the latest study, published in mBio, scientists harnessed this mechanism to deliver vaccine-like particles into immune cells using modified bacteria that are unable to replicate and cause infection.by Sam Wong 18 April 2013,Imperial college ,London
A genetically modified version of a bacterium that extracts gold from its environment can signal the presence of the precious metal. The result could be a boon for prospectors. Reith and Grass have developed a genetically modified version of C. metallidurans that produces a visible response when the detox genes are switched on."When the microbes come into contact with gold, they flash a light that can be detected using a hand-held photometer," says Grass. He envisages that prospectors will be able to detect whether gold is present simply by taking a sample of soil and adding modified bacteria to it. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0904583106.
How about create a microbial consortia from several modified microbes? They can effectively perform complicated metabolic pathways that is impossible for a single modified microbes. Such that we can hassle the microbial consortia to produce some structure-complicated pharmaceuticals or to degrade recalcitrant pollutants. Another idea is to apply single modified microbes or the microbial consortia to the gut microbiota of livestock, to improve the digestion efficiency or to treat pathogen attacks.
With recycling of crop residue of different types may help change the population of micro-organism
When microorganisms are isolated from nature, their performance in producing desired products is rather poor. Metabolic engineering is performed to improve the metabolic and cellular characteristics to achieve enhanced production of desired product at high yield and productivity. Since the performance of microbial cell factory is very important in lowering the overall production cost of the bioprocess, many different strategies and tools have been developed for the metabolic engineering of microorganisms.
http://10.1038/nbt.2461
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