The Rural Voice, 1996-11, Page 13Scrap Book
This biotech
testing tool
comes cheap
Think biotechnology and you
usually think big bucks but
researchers at universities in
Saskatchewan, British
Columbia, Ottawa and
Maryland, and at the Ag Canada
research station in Ottawa, are
using one tool that costs only
pennies.
The biologists use short
chunks of PVC piping, 6.5 cm
wide by 20 cm long to create
soil microcosms for isolated
testing of soil bacteria.
Many believe bacteria, fungi
and other micro-organisms, will
be the future fertilizers and crop
protection products. Some will
be selected from nature, but in
some cases, scientists might
modify them through genetic
engineering.
While genetically altered
plants can be grown outside
because they can be plainly
seen, scientists don't want to
test genetically altered bacteria
in soil outdoors because it can't
be monitored so easily if some-
thing went wrong.
They create a microcosm by
taking the tubes to a test plot
and hammering them into the
ground, then pulling them out
with a core sample of soil.
Indoors, they inoculate the soil
in the tubes with a genetically -
altered bacterium.
According to researchers,
carting a shovel full of soil from
the field to the lab wouldn't
reflect the real environment.
Once disturbed, the soil would
have different compaction,
aeration and water absorption
rates and that could effect the
bacteria.
The researchers have been
doing tests to see if the survival
rates of bacteria in the tubes
mimics those in the fields.°
—Source: Western Producer
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NOVEMBER 1996 9