Some notes on Artificial Symbionts

Source: New Scientist
Japanese scientists are exploring the idea of using live bacteria loaded with artificial DNA as a from of data storage. Although the details are sketchy at this point, you would store data in the system by modifying the artificial DNA chains. They anticipate that the data would then be safe for up to 1-million years as it is passed down through generations. To demonstrate this, they encoded the message "E=mc^2 1905" into artificial DNA and inserted it into a colony of bacteria. They encoded the data in four different sequences to provide redundancy.

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Source: http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b-online/e33/33a.htm
Source: http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/BOT135/Lect26.htm
Lichen are the result of a symbiotic relationship between certain algae and fungi. In particular, while the algae can survive in nature without the fungus, the fungal component can only survive independently under special conditions, depending on the algae to provide food. Lichen and fungus can also form a symbiotic relationship with trees, allowing the tree to survive in soils that would normally not be able to provide it with sufficient nutrients to survive. In return, the fungus derives nourishment from excess carbohydrates provided by the tree.

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Now consider an artificial bacterial or algeal system that was used to control many aspects of the Angel ships, converting T-field energy into food, provided they were contained within a moist, protected environment. Once released into Pico Island, symbiotic relationships could be developed that allowed local plant and animal life (depending on whether it was algeal or bacterial material) to survive and even flourish in the high T-field environment, provided the host served as a protective environment for the symbiont. The symbiont could serve the function of protecting the host from the worst effects of T-field poisoning.

Feel free to discuss.....