Team:Edinburgh/biology(tntmutagenity)

Personal note

Participating in the iGEM competition gives the opportunity to people to meet like-minded scientists around the world. The whole structure of the competition promotes the creation of a global scientific community, removing boundaries and making collaboration between different disciplines of science easier. Such a mentality is needed for tackling scientific issues of this era. Science has reached such a level where everyone has become so specialised, that sometimes the bigger picture is lost. Hopefully all of us can make a change for the future generations. Participating in iGEM inspired me in looking further into the beneficial prospects of synthetic biology and has motivated me to look further into this branch of science.
Vasilis

The majority of TNT toxicity studies have been performed by Jehuda Yinon (1990) and have been described in his book Toxicity and Metabolism of Explosives. The studies were for the most part derived from observations of people working closely with TNT at weapons factories or cleanup operations. TNT was found to be cytotoxic and mildly mutagenic. The primary metabolites of TNT in the body are 4-amino-2, 6-dinitrotoluene and 2, 4-diamino-6-nitrotoluene. TNT along with its metabolites was found to be particularly cytotoxic after prolonged exposure. The most common symptoms of extended TNT exposure are anaemia and hepatotoxicity, as the chemical was found to affect the structure of haemoglobin and be lethal to hepatic cells. If ingested, TNT may cause cyanosis (darkening of the skin or lips due to extreme vasoconstriction), gastritis and, in large doses, toxic jaundice resulting in liver failure and death. 50% of workers exposed to TNT had thermoregulatory disorders, while 20% showed disorders of the nervous system; systolic murmur, bradycardia, systolic hypotension and myocardial dystrophy were also commonly reported. Finally, following TNT leaks into ponds and lakes, the concentration of 5mg/L was found to be lethal to fish, raising serious concerns about the environmental safety of the chemical.

References

Honeycutt, Michael, Susan Jarvis, and Victor McFarland. "Cytotoxicity and Mutagenicity of 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene and Its Metabolites." ECOTOXICOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY 35 (1996): 282-87. Print.

Yinon, Jehuda. "Toxicity and metabolism of explosives." Google Books. CRC Press Inc. 1990. Link

Edinburgh University iGEM Team 2009