LAND MINE DETECTING PLANTS

BY ANAGHA, AISHWERYA, SHANAYA & ELIZA

WHAT IS GENETIC ENGINEERING?

• Genetic Engineering is a
change of an organism’s
characteristics by
controlling its genes or
genetic material.
 WHAT IS A
LANDMINE?
• Landmines are weapons, usually buried, that
explode when stepped on and are designed to
injure or kill, leaving long-term psychological
effects and posing a financial burden to the
community.
Quick fact:
• Colombia is seriously affected by this problem
because landmines are currently used by groups
outside the law to protect coca plantations and
to counter the army.
 Aresa Biodetection company has genetically modified a thale-cress plant called Arabidopsis
Thaliana to change color when in contact with nitrogen dioxide emanating from explosives.

SO WHAT IS A LAND MINE DETECTING

PLANT?

• It is one of the first demonstrations of

engineering electronic systems into plants.
It allows plants (in this case spinach) to
detect chemical compounds known as
nitroaromatics, which are often used in
landmines. When the plant detects these
compounds it emits a fluorescent signal that
can be read with an infrared camera (IR).
PROCESS OF MAKING THE
SENSOR
• "By embedding leaves with carbon
nanotubes," the MIT (Massachusetts
Institute of Technology) explain, “they’ve
transformed spinach plants into sensors
that can detect explosives and wirelessly
relay that information to a handheld
device similar to a smartphone.“
• "Usually tobacco plants only produce this
pigment (anthocyanin) in their flowers,
resulting in their pink colour, but in the
GM (genetically modified) plants, the
presence of a particular compound in the
soil, will also induce pigment production
in the leaves – resulting in red plants.”
 DISTRIBUTION (EASY WAY OF
UNDERSTANDING)
AFTERMATH
THE EXPLOSIVE INSIDE
THE LANDMINE (TNT)
RELEASES NO2
(NITROGEN DIOXIDE) Detecting the
Carbon Inside of
WHEN IT HAS BEEN IN explosive’s
Nanotube the leaves
THE GROUND FOR A chemicals
LONG TIME. THE NO2
MOVES THROUGH THE
SOIL AND IS ABSORBED
BY THE MINE PLANT,
WHEN IT STARTS THE
PRODUCTION OF THE
Infrared camera that
RED COMPOUND. Device that interprets the is used to detect gas
signal
GENETIC ENGINEERING
EXAMPLES:

Ranging from coloured

pineapple to glow in the dark
jellyfish and mice, see-through
frogs to muscly pigs and many
more!
ADVANTAGES + DISADVANTAGES OF THE GM
PLANT
Pros
High reliability- it has 100% accuracy most of
the time. – therefore, saving thousands of lives.
Mobile Construction- dynamic construction
locations, signalling where explosives are
concealed by changing colour.
It’s very efficient and easy to use once the
process has gone through. It significantly
speeds the removal of landmines and UXO
(unexploded ordnance).
It is naturally selfpollinating and the plants
developed by Aresa are conditionally fertile
such that they are male-sterile enabling the
growth of these Biodetection plants to be
strictly controlled.
Cons
Nitrogen oxides are also formed by denitrifying
(reducing nitrate and nitrite to gaseous forms of
nitrogen) bacteria, causing false alarms.
These plants do not grow to be high, making it
difficult to watch the results. – This takes 3-5
weeks which is a long time.
There is no way to plant the plant in a minefield
so it would have to be airdropped.- Clearing
mines are costly too.
The seeds would have to grow into healthy
flowering plants entirely untended because no
one is gardening in a minefield. In essence, they
would have to grow like weeds, survive in
adverse conditions, and outcompete neighbours.
 SUMMARY
• A general conclusion about
landmine detection is that no
technology is capable of detecting
all types of landmines under all
environmental conditions and that
there is a need for developing multi-
sensor detection systems in order to
overcome each sensor’s limitations.
Extra note: Plants suffer from high
rates of false alarms and their effect on
native plants has not been studied yet.
THANKS FOR LISTENING AND PAYING GREAT ATTENTION TO THIS
PRESENTATION!!

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE LAND MINE DETECTING
PLANT AND OTHER SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES!

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