Godzilla Bacteria
Project
We live in Japan, the only country atomic bombs were dropped. We have also experienced the issue of radioactive contamination caused by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Even with today's science and technology, we cannot solve this problem. It will take many years and enormous price to achieve this. To solve this problem, we are carrying out a project inspired by "Godzilla," which originated in Japan.
What is Godzilla Bacteria?
Do you know "Godzilla"?
Godzilla, monster from a Japanese tokusatsu (special effects) monster movie, is believed to be a creature that lived in ancient times, transformed by exposure to radiation.
Godzilla's most distinctive feature is that it grows when it absorbs radiation. We have named the bacteria that absorbs and use the energy of radiation like Godzilla. "Godzilla bacteria", which we are trying to create them by remodeling existing bacteria.
How to create Godzilla Bacteria?
Our idea is to create Godzilla bacteria by remodeling existing bacteria.
Our previous research has shown that melanin, which is also present in human skin, absorbs radiation. Therefore, we hypothesized that remodeling bacteria to produce large amounts of melanin would be possible by radiation absorption.
It is generally believed that the enzymes-tyrosine and tyrosinase, are necessary for melanin to be synthesized. Since most existing bacteria already have tyrosine, we believe that melanin synthesis can be done by having bacteria produce tyrosinase.
However, this alone is not enough to call it "Godzilla Bacteria".
It needs to absorb radiation then use that energy to multiply and grow.
We are planning to study the mechanism of bacteria multification and growth by making good use of radiation absorbed by melanin from a synthetic biological approach.