“A team of Australian scientists is genetically engineering a common fly species so that it can eat more of humanity’s organic waste while producing ingredients for making everything from lubricants and biofuels to high-grade animal feeds,” reports The Guardian:
Black soldier flies are already being used commercially to consume organic waste, including food waste, but tweaking their genetics could widen the range of waste their larvae consume while, in the process, producing fatty compounds and enzymes. In a scientific paper, the team based at Sydney’s Macquarie University outlined their hopes for the flies and how they could also cut the amount of planet-warming methane produced when organic waste breaks down.
“We are heading towards a climate disaster, and landfill waste releases methane. We need to get that to zero,” Dr Kate Tepper, a lead author of the paper, said. Dr Maciej Maselko runs an animal synthetic biology lab at Macquarie University where Tepper has already started engineering the flies.
The fly larvae can eat double their body weight a day and, like other insects, their larvae are used for animal feed. Maselko said the flies could already do the job of consuming waste faster than microbes.
A genetically-modified chicken lays eggs that people allergic to eggs can eat.
Genetic engineering recently produced bacon and pork that people who are allergic to red meat can eat.
Scientists recently developed genetically-modified bananas to keep the principal variety of banana from being wiped out by a dangerous blight. They also engineered bionic silkworms that spin fibers six times stronger than Kevlar.
Scientists have genetically engineered a cow that produces human insulin in its milk, which could one day make insulin much cheaper and more abundant.
Genetic engineering has led to a corn yield breakthrough in China. A mutant tomato could save harvests around the world.
Gene therapies are being used to cure inherited blindness and deafness in some people, and to block a painful hereditary disorder. A new gene therapy may cure sickle-cell anemia.
