Detoxifying Organisms Deal with Pollutant Problem

Scientists at The University of Manchester have achieved a major breakthrough, identifying certain detoxifying organisms that may be able to effectively deal with the world's pollutant problem, new research indicates.

With greenhouse gases hitting a record high in 2013, experts are scrambling to find a solution to the abundant pollutants in our atmosphere like PCBs and dioxins, along with the ever infamous carbon dioxide.

Now, after 15 years of research, a team from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) may have found an answer.

Led by Professor David Leys, researchers realized that certain organisms manage to lower the toxicity of pollutants. The secret lies in their ability to use vitamin B12 to deal with the tricky halogen atoms found in common pollutants.

"We already know that some of the most toxic pollutants contain halogen atoms and that most biological systems simply don't know how to deal with these molecules. However, there are some organisms that can remove these halogen atoms using vitamin B12," Leys explained in a statement. "Our research has identified that they use vitamin B12 in a very different way to how we currently understand it."

Dozens of very harmful molecules that are released into the environment daily, either directly expelled by pollutants or from burning of fossil fuels. And as they become more and more prevalent in the atmosphere, their presence poses an increasing threat to the environment as well as humanity. For instance, air pollution has been shown in recent research to be linked to irregular heartbeat and blood clots.

The MIB team has had difficulty in the past growing enough of the natural organisms to be able to study how they detoxify the pollutants, but using X-ray crystallography they were able to finally see in 3D how halogen removal is achieved.

Some measures have already been taken to limit the production of pollutants, for example PCBs were banned in the United States in the 1970s and worldwide in 2001. But utilizing these detoxifying organisms on a larger scale could better help deal with the ever present pollutant problem.

"Detailing how this novel process of detoxification works means that we are now in a position to look at replicating it. We hope that ultimately new ways of combating some of the world's biggest toxins can now be developed more quickly and efficiently," Leys added.

The results were published in the journal Nature.