Gene Electrotransfer
Some light reading on the subject: Electroporation and Gene Electrotransfer . Here is also a video on a related procedure.
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we've found our first cheap and reliable gene therapy "vector". All we need to do is get the electroporator built.
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The specific voltage depends on the type of cell membrane used, and the pulse duration and shape (square vs. sinusoid, etc.), but typically, from my understanding, the rule of thumb is about 10,000 V/cm for the applied voltage per unit length of the cell, with square pulses of about a ms or so. This course website seems to have a fairly good procedure on it.
~Ian
EDIT: fixed my screwed-up calculations
Genes that encode resistance to arsenic in bacteria will allow the bacteria to survive arsenic poisoning, not the host.
Additionally, the introduction of foreign bacteria or genes into the gastrointestinal system would have so many unforseen consequences. Let's say you are able to insert a series of genes that allow vitamin D synthesis into lactobacillus (it's not going to be just one gene) .Those bacteria are now less energy-efficient than the other lactobacillus in your gut, because some of the metabolic energy they were using to keep themselves alive is now being used to produce vitamin D, so they be out-competed and die. Unless you can give bacteria a competitive advantage, they will die out in your gut pretty quickly.
I guess you could try and squash some additional genes in there that allowed those bacteria to efficiently metabolise and get energy from something that you hadn't commonly eaten until that point, then introduce that into your diet. That would provide at least a short-term boost to survival to your pet bacteria, at least until some others learned how to metabolise the foodstuff as well.
The microbiome is an ecosystem, and we don't have a fucking clue how to manipulate a whole one with good success. I guess at least with the gut you can flush it out and repopulate it if it gets too nasty...
Also the addition of one gene does not a disadvantage make. If you only have the produce it in low levels it doesn't come as a disadvantage. Also after enough exposure horizontal gene transfer would share the gene around so you'd always be producing it. Yes it may be an ecosystem but we screw with it all the time. Every time we take antibiotics the whole thing goes to shit anyway. Why not throw a new creature into the mix and see what happens? Worst comes to worst it dies out. If it's weaker it won't overtake the whole system anyway. And ya it's got unforeseen consequences. So does sticking a chunk of heavy metal into your hand or taking a whole clusterfuck of noots. That's why we test it and see what happens. That is how science works. If we didn't do things because of the possibility of unforeseen consequences we'd be living in the dark ages. Not to say we should go barreling forward, but it could be interesting to see the affect on the body.
That said, if you're interested in vitamin synthesis and how to induce it in bacteria, take a look at this site: http://www.kegg.jp/kegg/pathway.html
It contains pretty much the sum of human knowledge of genetic pathways in a huge number of organisms. Lactobacillus acidophilus already contain the synthetic machinery to make B12 (and likely others), and are already used for its industrial production, so you can at least know that the organism you want is capable of producing it. Of course, to increase its production, you'd have to tinker a lot with the genes of the bacteria (likely already done to save money in industry) and diet of the host, then find a way to get the vitamins out of the bacteria, possibly by packaging them into vesicles for export (I don't know how you would do this with small molecules, only with proteins, you'd probably have to look at pathways in secretory cells).