Clarification of Engineered bug (Score 1)

I read the CNN article, and it is not completely clear from the article what they did. Let me explain. Deincoccus radiodurans is a microorganism which is naturally resistant to very high doses of radiation. Believe it or not, radiation is naturally found in the environment. They did not engineer the bug to be resistant to radiation! It is also NOT resistant to heat, antibiotics, most toxic chemicals, etc. The engineering was only to add a plasmid containing the genes from the mer operon, which produce enzymes to convert alkyl mercury compounds (the most toxic kind) to elemental mercury (the least toxic kind). This operon is widely found in common soil bacteria, and is naturally transferred between different species of bacteria by means of plasmids. The mer operon has been introduced in many organisms, including plants, for the purpose of treating mercury and other heavy metal (e.g., tin, lead) wastes. The bug now has the capability to degrade alkyl mercury compounds in the presence of high levels of radioactivity, such as may be found in nuclear wastes. That's all. This bug does not "eat" toxic waste, in the sense that degradation of the organic mercury compounds does not provide any energy to the cells for growth or metabolism. The degradation of the mercury compounds keeps them from killing the bug! Get off the Frankenstein crap, people. You have been watching too many Saturday morning cartoons. Robert S. Phillips, Professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia