Grave threat to life on earth due to lab-made ‘mirror-image’ bacteria: All you want to know

Apparently,

lab-made microbes

are new evils for life on earth, and it’s time we pay attention to what the leading scientists are warning us about.
Synthetic bacteria

made in a laboratory might just unleash a

global plague

that life on Earth is incapable of defending itself against. That’s the concern raised by a group of eminent researchers in a Policy Forum published online in Science.

The world-leading scientists have called for a halt on research to create “mirror life” microbes amid concerns that the synthetic organisms would present an “unprecedented risk” to life on Earth. The international group of

Nobel laureates

and other experts warn that mirror bacteria, constructed from mirror images of molecules found in nature, could become established in the environment and slip past the immune defenses of natural organisms, putting humans, animals and plants at risk of lethal infections. The commentary’s 38 authors, from a broad range of disciplines, argue that governments worldwide should prohibit research and funding aimed at creating so-called

mirror-image bacteria

whose chemical makeup differs in a fundamental way from that of naturally existing organisms.

What do the scientists say:

Prof Vaughn Cooper, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Pittsburgh, said, “The threat we’re talking about is unprecedented. Mirror bacteria would likely evade many human, animal and plant immune system responses and in each case would cause lethal infections that would spread without check.”
The expert group also includes Dr Craig Venter, the US scientist who led the private effort to sequence the human genome in the 1990s, and the Nobel laureates Prof Greg Winter at the University of Cambridge and Prof Jack Szostak at the University of Chicago.

Although a viable mirror microbe would probably take at least a decade to build, a new risk assessment raised such serious concerns about the organisms that the 38-strong group urged scientists to stop work towards the goal and asked funders to make clear they will no longer support the research.
Ruslan Medzhitov, an immunologist at Yale University and one of the authors said, “It’s hard to overstate how severe these risks could be. If mirror bacteria were to spread through infected animals and plants, much of the planet’s many environments could be contaminated. … Any exposure to contaminated dust or soil could be fatal.”
Jack Szostak, a co-author and a 2019 Nobel Prize–winning chemist at the University of Chicago, added, “The result could be catastrophic irreversible damage, perhaps far worse than any challenge we’ve previously encountered.”
But other researchers argue the danger is overblown, and say research bans could slow unrelated progress.
All of life’s primary biomolecules can exist in two mirror-image forms, like a left and right hand. But only one form is found in nature. Proteins are left-handed, for example, and DNA and RNA are right-handed. Synthetic biologists have previously synthesized mirror-image proteins and genetic molecules. And scientists have already manufactured large, functional mirror molecules to study them more closely. Some have even taken baby steps towards building mirror microbes, though constructing a whole organism from mirror molecules is beyond today’s know-how.
Hence, as per Szostak, that work “is perfectly valid and not a threat.”

What is concerning part then?

The fresh concerns over the technology are revealed in a 299-page report and a commentary in the journal Science. The concern, is that taking this line of work many steps further could result in fully mirror-image bacteria that could reproduce. Such organisms would likely be able to infect and potentially harm a wide range of microbes, plants, and animals while resisting the molecules that enable predators to kill and digest existing microbes.
The authors write in Science, “Unless compelling evidence emerges that

mirror life

would not pose extraordinary dangers, we believe that mirror bacteria and other mirror organisms, even those with engineered

biocontainment measures

, should not be created. We therefore recommend that research with the goal of creating mirror bacteria not be permitted, and that funders make clear that they will not support such work.”

Dr Kate Adamala, a synthetic biologist at the University of Minnesota and co-author on the report, was working towards a mirror cell but changed tack last year after studying the risks in detail. She said, “We should not be making mirror life. We have time for the conversation. And that’s what we were trying to do with this paper, to start a global conversation.”
Prof Paul Freemont at Imperial College London, who was not involved in the report, called it an “excellent example of responsible research and innovation”. He added, “Whilst the authors clearly point out the need for an open and transparent debate on the development of mirrored living organisms, there is also a need to identify the promise and positive uses of mirror chemistry in biological systems, albeit in a limited and perhaps future regulated manner.”
The Policy Forum authors acknowledge it will be at least a decade before synthetic biologists will be capable of creating these life forms. Nevertheless, they recommend halting all research aimed at that goal and urge funding agencies not to support it. As Szostak says, “The best thing is not to go there in the first place.”