WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - An international group of Nobel laureates and other experts have warned about the potential dangers of mirror bacteria, which are created from the mirror-like images of molecules of life, posing an 'unprecedented risk' to all living beings on the earth.
Prof Vaughn Cooper, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Pittsburgh, explained, '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.'
Molecules in living organisms exist in two forms, each the mirror image of the other. DNA and RNA are made of 'right-handed' molecules while proteins are made of 'left-handed' amino acids.
The lab-grown bacteria, composed of mirror molecules, could not evolve naturally and must be created artificially.
Some scientists are working to develop functional mirror molecules to study it further, and eventually explore the possibility of building an entire organism from them.
However, in a 299-page report and a commentary in the journal Science, the group of 38 experts cautioned that the synthetic bacteria could be used as a lethal weapon or spread a contagious disease as it is undetectable to other microbes, including viruses, allowing it to easily spread between ecosystems.
'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,' the authors wrote.
'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.'
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