ENGULFED - SHAILEE ADKE

ENGULFED
By Shailee Adke


Friday, 21st August 2009 – 8:30 AM

Phil sat at the table across his girlfriend Kate, having his breakfast. He looked tired, from all the hard work that he had been doing since a couple of months. It had been long since he had spent time at home. Kate was thinking about spending some time with her cousins and was about to ask him if he was free over the weekend when the phone rang.
She went to receive it.

“Hello… Hi Sandra, how’ve you been?” She smiled, “Oh nothing much… Yeah, just a second. Phil!! Sandra’s on the line!” Kate got him the phone.

Phil took the phone and left the table. “Good morning Sandra. Tell me.” He walked toward his room as he was talking. “Oh, is it? That’s great news. Yeah… I’ll be there right away. See you!” He picked up his bag and the car keys and almost ran towards the front door calling out to Kate, “Honey I gotta rush. Sandra says its working! This is going to be big! I’ll check and call you from the lab. Bye!” And he was gone before Kate could respond.


Four months ago -

Dr. Phil Stevens, 30 and his partner Dr. Sandra Baker 28, both scientists at the Center for Biogenetic Research and Development (CBRD) had been working on an experiment for almost a year. This experiment, if successful would be a really useful one for the environment and solve a lot of ecological problems.

The two scientists were working on isolating a bacterium that could eat plastic. Plastic bags are very popular in our daily lives and have a harsh environmental impact on our ecosystems. Every year, approximately 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide and billions of those are dumped into the oceans. Countless wildlife, including sea-lions, whales, birds and turtles ingest the plastic bags and die every year. These bags, made out of polyethylene (PE) have very high durability, persisting in the environment for 20 to 1000 years before they decompose.

In May 2009, Sandra started with the idea that if plastic bags are being degraded by microorganisms in nature, it should be possible to isolate them. She collected a few soil samples from a local landfill site and mixed them together to create the final enrichment culture (FEC) which she wanted to use as a source of potential PE degrading microorganisms.
At this stage, Sandra reasoned, if there were bacteria of interest, there should be enough of them to make a measurable difference. She then decided to begin her experiments and approached Phil, who had been her research partner in a few earlier projects at CBRD.


Friday, 21st August 2009 – 8:50 AM

Phil parked his car at the CBRD parking lot and ran toward the elevator. He was really excited about the first positive result of their experiment and hoped that everything Sandra had said was true and not just a false alarm. As soon as the elevator came to a halt at the third floor where his lab was, he scrambled out of it and entered the lab. He hurriedly threw his bag on his desk and looked for Sandra. He found her in the inner room, looking at a flask, a bright smile on her face.

“What’s happening?” Phil asked Sandra. “Have you weighed it? Is there a difference?”

Sandra had made a few notes which she brought to show him and added “Yes! Minimal medium with PE as the sole carbon source. There’s turbidity in the flask which means the organisms are using PE as their carbon source. Phil lets get down working… Now!”

“Yeah, LB agar plating! Let’s get going. We need to observe the morphology and the amount of microorganisms in the FEC. God; I can’t believe this is actually happening!”

They subjected the FEC to a series of dilutions and plating out on Luria-Bertani agar plates and waited for the results. It took them two days to figure out what they were trying to find. The agar test revealed four distinct colonial morphologies, suggesting the existence of at least four different microbial strains in FEC.


Sunday, 23rd August 2009 – 7:00 AM

Now that the experiment was gaining pace, Sandra and Phil couldn’t afford to waste any time. They worked non-stop for hours together. Kate had to carry on her weekend plan without Phil because he wanted to go check on the results at the lab.

“Wow! Four! This is good!” exclaimed Phil. “Let’s isolate and test them separately now.” He picked up the colonies of each microbial strain and asked Sandra to re-suspend them in a salt solution. “0.2ml of 0.85% NaCl should do for each. Streak them out on LB agar and keep doing it till you get pure strains. I’ll just get back in a while. I need to note all this down.”

Sandra repeated the process till evening and showed the pure strains to Phil. They preserved each strain on LB agar and decided to test the isolated microbial strains individually for PE degrading ability. They carried out individual tests, using three flasks for each strain and headed home, to come back the next day and look at the results.

At home, Kate had been waiting for Phil to be back. When Phil reached home, she had already served dinner and they both ate together, telling each other bout how the day was.

Kate was really excited about how she had spent the day with her cousin Martha and her husband and kids. “Martha and Joe said they would have loved to have you visit them too. We had a lot of fun with the kids. I ran around so much, I’m exhausted. They’ve really grown up since we met them last! Anna has started walking now and Ted recites the alphabet so well! Joe was asking about your experiment. How is it going, by the way? Did it work?”

“Oh yes”, said Phil. “Sandra and I have isolated four different strains of microbes and we shall get to know bout their individual abilities tomorrow. And yes, I shall give Joe a call and tell him I shall meet up with him some time soon.”

They were both tired after the busy weekend and went to bed soon after dinner. Phil was supposed to go to the lab early next morning.


Monday, 24th August 2009 – 7:30 AM

Sandra had already started making charts with the results when Phil reached the lab. She had noted the PE film strip weight loss for each flask and was now calculating the average weight loss for each strain. “The second strain shows an average PE weight loss of approximately 22%. The first, third and fourth show 5%, 1% and 3%.” She showed him the chart. “Should we try combinations now? I’m sure it’s going to be much more effective than individual strains”

Phil beamed. “Go ahead, Miss Baker!”

Sandra was so enthusiastic about the project now; she wasted no time at all. She quickly made combinations the second strain with each of the other three strains and carried the test and noted the results.

“Phil! Here you go. Strain 1 & 2 together show almost 35% PE weight loss. Both 2&3 and 2&4 show approximately 23% loss. How is that?”

“Great,” replied Phil. We’ll have to figure out why though. Can I take these charts home with me? I’ve made a few notes here and I’ll take your notes too. I guess we should both take a break from the lab. I’ll study the notes at home and get everything back on Wednesday. This is going good! Oh, would you like to join Kate and me for dinner tonight? It would be a nice change”

Sandra agreed that they needed a break from the lab and also that he could study the notes and figure out stuff at home. “Oh and I forgot to tell you, I did the Gram staining for strain 1 and 2 and I’ve noted down my observations. I’ll study those at home and tell you my conclusions when I’m done. About the dinner, well I already have plans for tonight. Maybe some other time! Thanks though. Tell Kate I said hello. See you on Wednesday then. Goodnight.”

Phil went home and told Kate how happy he was with the progress of the project. He explained to her about where they had reached and how this was going to be one of the biggest projects of his career at CBRD. Kate was really happy to know everything was going smoothly, but she still seemed quite uncomfortable about how much time Phil spent working. Phil told her it was just a matter of a few weeks and the project would soon be done with. Then he could take a vacation and spend quality time with her.

The next day, Phil stayed at home, reading the notes he and Sandra had made, along with some reference books in his study. By evening, he had figured out something really interesting and decided to call Sandra and tell her about it.

“Sandra! I found something,” he said when she received his call.
“What?” she asked excitedly.
“I figured why strain 2 gives better results with 1.”
“Why?”
“Because strain 1 produces a biosurfactant that emulsifies the PE oligomers. And the emulsified oligomers are taken up and metabolized by the microbial cells.”
“Makes sense!” Sandra agreed.
“Also, I think strain 1 helps strain 2 reproduce.”
“Cool! I’ve done my research too with strain 2. They’re Gram-negative cells, rod-shaped with rounded poles. And the LB agar shows deep-yellow pigmented colonies. Also, they did not grow in anaerobic conditions.”
“I guess I know where you’re getting. Did you take the glucose acid production test? ” he asked.
“Yes. Negative for glucose and positive for catalase and oxidase,” she replied promptly. “So that makes it Sphingomonas.”
“Yes,” Phil agreed. And what about strain 1? Did you find out yet?”
“Yup. That one’s Pseudomonas.”
Phil was happy with whatever both of them had found out. “Great! Tomorrow, we’ll carry out other tests on the combination and observe the effects, so that we can come up with our final report. See you at 7 then. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” said Sandra and hung up.


Wednesday, 26th August 2009 – 7:00 AM

Sandra and Phil carried out various tests with the combination of both the strains they had identified, for optimizing the PE degradation and observed that temperature, inoculum size and other such factors affected the degradation positively. They had now obtained a microbial association capable of PE degradation and had also been successful in isolating bacteria belonging to the genus Sphingomonas and Pseudomonas. They achieved a higher degree of PE degradation by combination of the two strains. The degradation that took place released water and minor amounts of carbon dioxide.
They carried out various experiments to genetically combine the two strains and came up with a new bacterium which they wanted to use on an industrial scale. They worked on the final report of their project to be presented to CBRD after a week. The presentation received a lot of appreciation and everyone at CBRD agreed that this new bacterium be given a name and released in the environment in order to rid the world of the menace created by waste plastic. This would save the lives of millions of wildlife species and save space in landfills.


One month later

Sandra and Phil’s plastic-eating bacteria had been named Landfilia phagi. They had grown the inoculum in fermenters, and the liquid medium was now ready to be introduced in the environment. The inputs were cheap, maintaining the required temperature took little energy because the microbe produced heat as it worked, and the only outputs were water and tiny levels of carbon dioxide; each microbe produced only 0.01 per cent of its own infinitesimal weight in carbon dioxide. It was surely going to be a huge step - using nature to solve a man-made problem.

Soon, CBRD released substantial amounts of the inoculum in nearby landfills and Landfilia phagi begun its job!


One year later

The microbes had been working pretty well on the landfills and almost all the plastic had been consumed. Landfilia phagi gained energy from engulfing plastic and multiplied at a faster rate, thus enhancing the degradation substantially. Tweaking nature to solve a man-made problem was actually working in favor of CBRD’s scientists. Phil and Sandra were being appreciated around the world, for their outstanding achievements.


Monday, 4th October 2010 – 10:00 AM

Phil reached the lab with a worried look on his face. Sandra was sitting at her desk, reading some papers. She saw him enter and asked, “What’s wrong, Phil? Why do you look so disturbed?”

“It’s the bacteria. Our very own Landfilia phagi!” he replied in a panicky tone. “They’re multiplying faster and faster. The plastic really helps them grow!”

“Well of course,” said Sandra. “We knew that, didn’t we? And what’s the problem? It’s good they’re multiplying faster. It will only help us degrade all the waste plastic sooner!”

“Fast multiplication is not the issue, Sandra! The issue is they no longer feed on plastic alone. It seems they have been mutating. The oligomers have caused them to mutate.”


“What?” exclaimed Sandra. “Oh God! And what has the mutation caused them to do?”

“Well, plastic’s not their only food anymore! They’ve started eating other stuff!”

“Other stuff? What do you mean?”

“I mean, we are in deep trouble! The bacteria now feed on steel, cement, glass, nylon. You name it!”

“No way,” cried Sandra. “Are you trying to tell me that our bacteria feed on anything that’s man-made?”

“Yes, Sandra. That is exactly what I’m trying to say! Man-made bacteria they are, after all!”

“What do we do, Phil? We’ve got to stop them. How much damage has been done?”

“Not much yet, but just as eating plastic made them multiply faster, eating the other stuff makes them grow unbelievably faster. They’re going to destroy everything! We have to stop them, NOW!”

Both of them frantically started looking through their notes. They wanted to analyze the characteristics of the bacterium they had engineered, before taking any step to stop the disaster it was going to cause.

They took a few weeks to complete their research and came up with a possible solution. By then, Landfilia phagi had eaten up quite a bit of man-made stuff and everyone was in panic.


Saturday, 6th November 2010 – 8:00 AM

Phil had decided to release protozoa in the landfills, which would destroy the plastic-eating bacteria. Protozoa are one-celled animals which engulf bacteria. He knew this would work. Sandra protested saying that releasing protozoa into the environment could cause diseases. But Phil had done his research. He considered only non-pathogenic protozoa, so that no further harm could be caused to humans or to the environment. He chose Trichomonas hominis, a flagellate parasite found in dogs, primates and humans. He knew it would not cause any harm because it was non-pathogenic. Sandra and the rest of CBRD accepted that Phil’s suggestion was safe and they had no alternative but to execute it.

“Is the inoculum ready?” Phil asked Sandra as soon as he entered the lab. “Yes,” she replied and they set off, to save the world from their own creation.

They had messed with nature and nature, in turn had messed with. It was time to use nature to rectify another man-made mistake, but this time, they used it in its pure form!


Friday, 24th December 2010 –

“Kate! Hurry! We’re already late. Just lock the door and come!” Phil shouted and honked thrice. He was in the car, waiting for her. They were about to leave for the much awaited vacation with Martha, Joe and their kids, to celebrate Christmas and New years’ at Joe’s new farmhouse.
(end)