1.   Soil bacteria and fungi live by digesting and recycling dead plant material such as leaves and seed cases.

2.   This is done by adding starch to the material and this gives the soil bacteria something to feed on when the plastic is buried in the rubbish tip.

3.   At such latitudes, the vegetation is highly dependent on soil bacteria, which cycle nitrogen to the roots.

4.   A team of immunologists in London claim they have evidence that BSE and multiple sclerosis are triggered by common soil bacteria.

5.   Bt genes are derived from Bacillus thuringiensis, a naturally occurring soil bacterium.

6.   Ingham claimed that a GM version of a common soil bacterium called Klebsiella planticola could spread and devastate plants if released into the wild.

7.   Insecticide-producing plants, also known as Bt crops, are engineered to produce a toxin from the soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis, in every cell.

8.   Normally the common soil bacterium divides by binary fission.

9.   Scientists have built in resistance by borrowing genes from soil bacteria, giving plants the ability to kill chewing caterpillars.

10.   SR Pharma of London is already carrying out trials with a heat-killed soil bacterium, Mycobacterium vaccae, which is injected into the skin.