ALowVerus
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Item #: SCP-####

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: All SCP-#### samples are to be kept at Foundation laboratories in desert biomes. SCP-####-A is to be kept in a hermetically-sealed greenhouse. All incoming and air and water pipes are to have positive pressure at all times, and all outgoing water and air are to be filtered for pollen and seed. Backup seeds are to be sampled monthly. SCP-####-B is to be kept in 100ml airtight containers filled with a glycerol-based medium at -80°C. To avoid death of the current SCP-####-B cell line, every two months, existing samples of SCP-####-B are to be plated on new media and allowed to grow for two days. Such replating procedures are to take place in a dedicated fume hood, stocked with requisite media, pipettes, pipette tips, and other materials before the procedure. At no point during any replating event are materials to be allowed to enter or exit the fume hood. After the aforementioned two days of growth, old samples are to be added to a disposal beaker and autoclaved. Should any containment breach occur, the site containing SCP-#### is to be quarantined until cleared by decontamination teams.

All commercial and governmental research into increasing the productivity of the RuBisCo protein (and other means of increasing the efficiency of photosynthesis) is to be tracked by Foundation operatives. All such research that is being performed by GoIs is to be halted with extreme prejudice in conjunction with the Global Occult Coalition. All such research that is being performed by non-anomalous laboratories is to be allowed to proceed unmolested, pending Ethics Committee intervention.

Item Description: SCP-####-A is a strain of the cyanobacteria Synechocystis sp. PCC 68031. SCP-####-B is a strain of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana2. Both organisms express an enhanced ability to create CO23 and O24 gradients across its cytoplasm. These gradients have been deemed anomalous in nature due to the lack of any recognizable chemical barrier holding the CO2 and O2 gradients in place. Rather than being held out by a bilayer or electric field or any other known gradient-maintaining mechanism, it is as if

Over multiple generations, SCP-####'s ability to create CO2 and O2 gradients has lead to a number of biological changes in the -A and -B organisms regarding their photosynthetic pathways. For example: Nearly all plant photosynthesis relies upon the enzyme RuBisCo5 to capture airborne carbon before it is incorporated into carbohydrates. In WT plants, RuBisCo often mistakenly fixates O2 rather than CO2, generating the toxic/inefficient byproduct phosphoglycoate. In SCP-####-B, RuBisCo does not capture O2. An O2 gradient exists within the organism's cells, such that no O2 exists within 0.01 microns of any of its thylakoids6. SCP-####'s near-perfect carbon fixation results in the organism never creating phosphoglycolate. Over multiple generations, SCP-#### has adapted to its enhancement by eliminating its now-redundant machinery for phosphoglycolate management (as phosphoglycolate is no longer present in sufficient quantities in each cell to cause problems) and reducing the CO2 binding site-specificity of the RuBisCo enzyme (as there is now little risk of RuBisCo in the chloroplasts ever coming into contact with O2).

The above enhancements have increased the rate of each individual RuBisCo protein’s CO2 fixation in SCP-####-B from 3-10 mps7 in WT plants to 70-90 mps in SCP-####. To accommodate the greatly increased efficiency of RuBisCo, the organism produces a sizably decreased number of RuBisCo molecules. Whereas non-anomalous plant life often requires nitrogen-based fertilizer to provide the raw nitrogen molecules used in RuBisCo production, SCP-####-B's smaller and less numerous RuBisCo analogs require little nitrogen and can thrive without fertilizer. Additionally, areas inhabited by SCP-####-B often become contaminated by large amounts of additional algae and moss, as these organisms thrive on the nitrogen resources unused by SCP-#### and can survive in SCP-####'s presence.

Similar enhancements to those listed above are visible in SCP-####-A's photosynthesis pathway as well.

SCP-####'s photosynthesis enhancements have been found to be genetically transmissible.

Test log ####-01:
Initial testing of SCP-#### comprised an exploration of the strain’s biological properties.

Experiment Number: 1
Feature of interest: Growth differences between SCP-####-B and WT Synechocystis
Test description: A WT strain of Synechocystis and a strain of SCP-####-B were grown in separate 300 ml beakers of freshwater media at STP.8 Each beaker was kept in a hermetically sealed 0.125m''3'' box throughout the test. Sunlight was shone on both beakers. The air in the testing boxes was sourced directly from Earth’s surface.9 Growth rates were recorded.
Results: SCP-#### grew rapidly throughout the media for 2.5 hours before beginning to die out. The WT strain followed typical Synechocystis growth patterns, exponentially growing for 15 hours, linearly expanding for another 12 hours, then decaying for a final 13 hours. Notably, the CO2 content rapidly decreased10 and the O2 content rapidly increased11 in the SCP-####-B vial during the testing period.

Experiment Number: 2
Feature of interest: Growth differences between SCP-####-A and WT Arabidopsis
Test description: A WT strain of Arabidopsis and a strain of SCP-####-A were seeded in separate hermetically sealed plots of size 1m''3'' at STP. Sunlight was shone on both plots. The air in the testing chambers was sourced directly from Earth’s surface. Growth rates were recorded.
Results: SCP-####-A grew throughout the plot for 3 days before beginning to die out. The WT strain followed typical Arabidopsis growth patterns, exponentially growing for 15 hours, linearly expanding for another 12 hours, then decaying for a final 13 hours. Notably, the CO2 content rapidly decreased12 and the O2 content rapidly increased13 during the testing period.

Experiment Number: 3
Feature of interest: Competition between SCP-####-A and WT strains.
Test description: A WT strain of Arabidopsis and 3 strains of SCP-####-A were seeded in a single hermetically sealed plot of size 1m''3'' at STP. Sunlight was shone on the plot. The air in the testing chamber was sourced directly from Earth’s surface. Growth was recorded.
Results: The SCP-####-A plant fruited after 21 days, and the WT plant fruited after 30 days, in line with typical Arabidopsis growth patterns. The SCP-####-A plant grew larger fruits than the WT Arabidopsis, with 42 seeds to the WT sample's 27. Of the 69 F1 plants, 39 of the -A children survived to form new -A samples, 3 of the -A children died soon after pollination, 20 of the WT children survived to form new WT samples, 5 of the WT children died after pollination, and 2 of the WT children survived to form new -A samples.
By day 250, SCP-####-A grew throughout the plot, and all WT samples had died. As SCP-####-A spread, the WT samples wilted at a rate proportional to the number of exigent SCP-####-A plants. Notably, the CO2 content rapidly decreased14 and the O2 content rapidly increased15 during the testing period.

Addendum ####-01: A number of ethical concerns have been raised concerning SCP-####'s containment, specifically concerning the role that the Foundation has taken in non-anomalous biological research. Selected relevant email transcripts are below.

From: ten.pcs|surevwola#ten.pcs|surevwola
To: ten.pcs|anq_scihte#ten.pcs|anq_scihte
Attachments: scp_####_documentation.docx, scp_test_logs.txt

Dear Sir/Madam,

Attached are test logs and preliminary documentation for SCP-####-A and -B. Obviously, we'll keep them in storage and test for exact properties, but in summary:
- The -A and -B organisms are extremely efficient at photosynthesis, far more so than comparable organisms.
- As a corollary to the above, they can grow on minimal CO2 and in minimal light, almost negating those as limiting factors to cell growth.
- When grown in WT-compatible environments, they rapidly reduce atmospheric CO2 content and spread throughout their environs.

This may not sound too dramatic, but the macro-scale effects of organisms with improved photosynthetic pathways would be huge. I can't even begin to model what might happen. Cyanobacteria occupy almost every biological niche available. They can be freshwater, marine, terrestrial, airborne, anywhere. Synechocystis is a model organism exactly because of this non-specificity of habitat, among other things. If SCP-####-B gets out and does indeed thrive, it would start out restricted to its native marine habitat, but, over a number of generations, it would make algae blooms on land across the planet. Similarly, the Arabidopsis plant is a model organism due to its widespread proliferation throughout Earth's lands, infesting every temperate climate location on the planet. Arabidopsis has a longer lifespan and thus a less mutable genome than Synechocystis, but its base form already thrives in enough biomes that if released, SCP-####-A would likely proliferate worldwide.

I must ask: Does the Foundation's definition of "normalcy" include maintaining the current climate of the planet? If these two organisms were released, they could potentially cause a GK-class end-of-the-world scenario, if not due to an overabundance of oxygen and deficiency of CO2 in the atmosphere, and thus the inhospitability of the atmosphere to humanity, then due to the inhospitibility of the atmosphere to all non-SCP-#### plant life, which, starved of CO2, will die, unable to engage in photosynthesis.
Obviously, we will continue to study and contain SCP-####, but the effects it exhibits could quite possibly be replicated by other, more directly intuitive means. I know some Cornell scientists who are doing something analogous with tobacco plants. They may not be able to do something quite so dramatic as forming magical O2 barriers, but even a slight photosynthetic improvement would give a plant a dramatic advantage over its unenhanced cousins. I thus propose that the Foundation monitor and possibly work to halt research into increasing the efficiency of photosynthesis, for fear of death by weed and algae.

Best regards,
Researcher Low

From: ten.pcs|anq_scihte#ten.pcs|anq_scihte
To: ten.pcs|surevwola#ten.pcs|surevwola

Good afternoon, Researcher.

While these organisms could possibly hold destructive potential for the planet, it is not the Foundation's role to prevent non-anomalous research from taking place. If biologists want to find a non-anomalous way to make photosynthesis more effective, it is their right to do.

Good luck,

Charles Jacob
Ethics Committee Correspondent

(Note that, unless explicitly stated otherwise, all the above opinions are the opinions of Charles Jacob and not the opinions of the Ethics Committee as a whole.)

From: ten.pcs|surevwola#ten.pcs|surevwola
To: ten.pcs|anq_scihte#ten.pcs|anq_scihte

Hey Charles,

I understand that the Foundation does not typically limit the spread of non-anomalous technologies, but there are many exceptions. If I am reading SCP-4689 correctly, either a future iteration of the Foundation massacred a pride of lions to maintain normalcy or the present Foundation is considering opening zoos to preserve lions as a species. We already do this sort of preservation of Earth's biosphere - I just want to do ecological preservation on a broader scale, a scale that SCP-4778 shows we already have.

This isn't even the first time we've shut down research on possibly natural phenomena. If I recall correctly, there is a ball of dark matter floating above our heads, and rather than reporting it to NASA, we are considering throwing an asteroid approximately 22 km in diameter at it to gravitationally draw it away from our planet.

And you're telling me we won't even try to stop Monsanto from starting a green death scenario?

Thanks again,
Researcher Low

Footnotes