Projects: Transferring Arabidopsis Enzymes for RDX Degradation into Wheatgrass for Soil Leachate Treatment
- Project Site
- York, United Kingdom
- Organization
- University of York
- Contact Person
- Elizabeth Rylott, Ph.D., liz.rylott@york.ac.uk
- Purpose of Project
- N/A
Liz Rylott and Neil Bruce (York), Sharon Doty and Stuart Strand (Univ. of Washington), Antonio Palazzo (US Army, USA CRREL) The toxic explosive hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) is both resistant to degradation and highly mobile through soils and ground water and, as a result of this, RDX is now a significant threat to drinking sources such as those close to the US Massachusetts Military. We have demonstrated that Arabidopsis expressing bacterial RDX degrading enzymes remove and degrade saturating concentrations of RDX from soil leachate. We are currently transferring this technology into selected perennial wheatgrass species for the phytoremediation of RDX from soil leachate.
- Project Durarion
- In progress since December 2002
- Project Status
- Continuing
- Project Media
- Groundwater: drinking water source
- Contaminant categories
- Explosives
- Health/exposure concerns
- The contaminated soil leachate is moving into groundwater that serves as a drinking water source.
- Phytotechnology mechanism
- phytodegradation
- Plant Species
- Arabidopsis thaliana and Perennial Wheatgrass sp
- Remediation Enhancing Additives
- None
- Project Scale
- Lab Scale
- Remediation Location
- Off Site
- Secondary Value/Uses for Project Land and Plants
- none
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