Red for landmine: A diagram from Aresa showing the process of TNT degrading to nitrogen dioxide which is detected by the GM tobacco plants, turning them red.
Credit: Aresa Biotechnology
RedDetect
Aresa said that they successfully tested the technology in 2005 in collaboration with the Danish Demining Centre, part of the Danish Army. They were able to show the plants turning red when growing on or near three different types of landmines.
Further field trials with the plants, which Aresa have dubbed 'RedDetect', took place in Serbia last year and the results are due to be announced next month. The aim of the South African leg of trials, likely to commence next year, is to test the technology in different set of climatic and environmental conditions.
Lou De Filippis, an environmental scientist at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, agreed that tobacco might be helpfully used to detect landmines and added that this is an "area of research with great interest and potential."
Aresa says that if the plants make it successfully through trials and do end up being used in the field, they will be partly sterile to prevent them from breeding. The company added that planting them might involve remote controlled vehicles to clear foliage from sites that are potentially contaminated with landmines and a device called a 'hydroseeder' that sows the seeds with a high-pressure water jet.
