Earlier quoted context omitted.
You take a gene from a plant, change the codons to whatever yeast uses, and then you put it into the yeast DNA. The hard part is that presumably multiple genes are required to produce a compound, and getting all of them to produce stuff at the right rate is probably difficult as well, since we don't 100% understand how to regulate gene expression.
Thanks! Could you shed some more light on how one actually takes a gene from a plant (in a lab setting I suppose) and put it into yeast?
Scientists brew cannabis using modified beer yeast
31–40 of 81 posts
Re: Scientists brew cannabis using modified beer yeast
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Two years back they synthesized the both halves of the steps for creating morphine using yeast. If you feed the yeast sugar, which is made from sunlight it will be worth it if the yields are high enough.
Yeah but then you're growing and refining a plant to avoid growing and refining a plant. The article said it needs to improve 100x. I'm not sure if that's reflective of today's or future prices as they continue to rapidly drop. It's certainly not impossible. I think it's just unlikely given the similarity between the tobacco and cannabis industries from a supply chain perspective.
Yes but at this point sugar is far more industrialized than cannabis. Sugar is ~$.15/lb wholesale (or less).
Re: Scientists brew cannabis using modified beer yeast
#33'hacked' is very quickly becoming one of my least favourite words. Just call it what it is: it's not hacking, it's genetic modification.
Re: Scientists brew cannabis using modified beer yeast
#34'hacked' is very quickly becoming one of my least favourite words. Just call it what it is: it's not hacking, it's genetic modification.
It's the headline, and it's fine.
Check the etymology of `hack` and you'll see it's a suitable word for gene editing.
Re: Scientists brew cannabis using modified beer yeast
#35'hacked' is very quickly becoming one of my least favourite words. Just call it what it is: it's not hacking, it's genetic modification.
biohacking
Re: Scientists brew cannabis using modified beer yeast
#36As someone in this industry, I doubt this will become a reality. The real problem is cost. When you use yeast, you have to supply the energy for the entire system. When you grow a plant, you get free energy from the sun. The cost savings are hard to beat. Nicotine extracts aren't made from yeast either. That should be a big warning flag for the business sides of these cool projects.
Making compounds with GM yeast tends to be a lot more efficient than growing whatever the original gene came from because the modified yeast tends to dedicate a lot more of its output to making whatever you've spliced in.
Re: Scientists brew cannabis using modified beer yeast
#37As someone in this industry, I doubt this will become a reality. The real problem is cost. When you use yeast, you have to supply the energy for the entire system. When you grow a plant, you get free energy from the sun. The cost savings are hard to beat. Nicotine extracts aren't made from yeast either. That should be a big warning flag for the business sides of these cool projects.
My understanding of illicit cannabis production is only from films like "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" but it seems to be heat lamps in basements and caravans etc. And the impression the news gives me is that UK Police regularly use heat cameras from helicopters and analysis of electricity bills to find illegal growers. Would this approach allow test-tube illegal cultivation with a much less detectable footpri…
I was thinking this’ll take prison hooch to the next level
Re: Scientists brew cannabis using modified beer yeast
#38'hacked' is very quickly becoming one of my least favourite words. Just call it what it is: it's not hacking, it's genetic modification.
Ok we've modified the title.
Re: Scientists brew cannabis using modified beer yeast
#39As someone in this industry, I doubt this will become a reality. The real problem is cost. When you use yeast, you have to supply the energy for the entire system. When you grow a plant, you get free energy from the sun. The cost savings are hard to beat. Nicotine extracts aren't made from yeast either. That should be a big warning flag for the business sides of these cool projects.
> When you use yeast, you have to supply the energy for the entire system
The “entire system” is a vat with yeast in it. For starters, that’s a much more space efficient way of growing something than in plants.
Secondly, the energy you provide to the system, in brewing, is just sugar, which is incredibly cheap. In fact, given that this works well, at large scale, for beer brewing (i.e. ethanol production), why do you think it wouldn’t work well for THC production? In fact, energy consumption in commercial (especially illicit) cannabis production is a nontrivial cost factor.