Scientists developed a way to track a soil bacterium called Streptomyces sp. MC1 that can clean up polluted soils by breaking down harmful chemicals and reducing toxic metals like chromium. They added a glowing green fluorescent protein to the bacteria so they could easily see where the bacteria were and how long they survived in contaminated soil. In tests with soil contaminated with two different pollutants, the tagged bacteria successfully removed over 96% of chromium and 65% of lindane over 28 days, demonstrating the approach works for monitoring bioremediation efforts.