By Dr. Chinta SidharthanReviewed by Lily Ramsey, LLMDec 16 2024

A groundbreaking study evaluates the feasibility, risks, and ethical considerations of creating mirror bacteria with reversed chirality, highlighting potential threats to health and ecosystems.

Study: Confronting risks of mirror life. Image Credit: Volha_R/Shutterstock.com

In a recent study published in Science, a team of researchers investigated and discussed the potential roadblocks to and risks of "mirror life," where life forms are synthesized using biomolecules with reversed chirality compared to natural life.

The researchers assessed the feasibility, safety concerns, and governance strategies to address the unprecedented risks posed by these synthetic life forms.

Background

Natural life is characterized by specific molecular chirality, with ribonucleic acid (RNA), deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and proteins being composed of specific enantiomers.

Advances in synthetic biology now allow for the synthesis of mirror-image biomolecules, which are resistant to degradation and hold promise for therapeutic applications.

Furthermore, the creation of mirror organisms, such as mirror bacteria, represents a significant advancement in biological engineering that can combine these mirror-image biomolecules into viable life forms.

However, while synthetic mirror molecules offer some benefits, the construction of mirror organisms also raises significant concerns. Such entities could evade immune responses, resist natural predators, and potentially proliferate uncontrollably, presenting risks to health and ecosystems.

Although existing studies have explored the functionality of these mirror biomolecules, a comprehensive risk assessment for mirror organisms is lacking.

The growing technical feasibility of creating mirror life highlights the need for deeper understanding, ethical considerations, and regulatory measures to address potential dangers and to balance scientific progress with public safety.

About the study

The present study analyzed the feasibility and risks associated with creating mirror bacteria using mirror-image biomolecules. The team, consisting of experts in synthetic biology, immunology, ecology, and biosecurity, assessed the technical challenges and potential hazards of mirror life.

They focused on the likelihood of mirror bacteria surviving and spreading in natural and host environments, with specific attention to their interactions with immune systems and ecosystems.

The analysis highlighted key technical hurdles in constructing mirror bacteria, including synthesizing complex mirror molecules such as DNA, proteins, and ribosomes. Furthermore, the researchers identified and discussed the two potential methods for constructing mirror organisms.

The study also examined how mirror bacteria might evade immune defenses, given the importance of chirality to immune recognition. Additionally, the researchers emphasized the risk of ecological invasion and compared mirror bacteria to invasive species that thrive without natural predators.

Results

The study reported that mirror bacteria could evade immune responses and disrupt ecosystems, posing significant risks. These organisms were expected to resist common immune mechanisms, such as antigen presentation and antibody production, potentially allowing unchecked growth.

Mirror bacteria were also predicted to survive environmental challenges, avoiding predation and natural microbial competition due to their reversed chirality.

The researchers determined that reversed chirality makes mirror biomolecules resistant to immune recognition and predation, enabling their survival and proliferation in natural environments. Such bacteria could potentially cause severe infections in humans, animals, and plants due to impaired immune defenses.

Furthermore, the findings indicated that mirror bacteria could potentially also resist degradation from immune processes, such as antigen presentation and antibody generation.

Vertebrate immune systems, which rely on these mechanisms, would likely be ineffective against mirror pathogens. Invertebrates and plants may also experience compromised immune responses.

The experimental data indicated that mirror proteins could also be resistant to cleavage and may not effectively trigger adaptive immune mechanisms, supporting the predictions about the severe pathogenic potential of these organisms.

Beyond health risks, the authors predicted that mirror bacteria could also evade natural microbial competitors and predators, including bacteriophages and antibiotics, due to their unique chirality.

This could allow them to colonize various environments, much like invasive species with limited natural controls.

Even with proposed biocontainment measures, such as engineered dependencies on synthetic nutrients, the potential for escape and misuse remains significant. The researchers stated that physical containment measures, while helpful, are vulnerable to accidents and failures.

The capacity of the mirror bacteria to exploit achiral nutrients and engineered pathways for consuming common nutrients further increases their potential to thrive outside laboratory settings.

The analysis also highlighted the potential for ecological imbalance. The persistent presence of mirror bacteria in ecosystems could lead to global dissemination, evolution, and harm to biodiversity. Even stringent biocontainment measures might fail to prevent accidental or even deliberate release.

Conclusions

In summary, the study stated that while mirror biomolecules offer valuable scientific applications, the risks of creating mirror bacteria far outweigh the potential benefits.

The study stated that creating mirror bacteria poses extraordinary risks to health and ecosystems due to immune evasion and ecological disruption, and the findings called for stringent policies to prevent the development of mirror organisms.

Preventing the development of mirror organisms ensures public safety while allowing progress in beneficial areas of synthetic biology. Furthermore, the team emphasized that collaboration among scientists, policymakers, and stakeholders is essential to mitigate these risks responsibly.

Journal reference:

Adamala, Katarzyna P, Agashe, D., Belkaid, Y., Matias, D., Cai, Y., Chang, M. W., Chen, I. A., Church, G. M., Cooper, V. S., Davis, M. M., Devaraj, N. K., Endy, D., Esvelt, K. M., Glass, J. I., Hand, T. W., Inglesby, T. V., Isaacs, F. J., James, W. G., Jonathan, & Kay, M. S. (2024). Confronting risks of mirror life. Science, 0(0), eads9158. doi:10.1126/science.ads9158. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads9158