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The BBC is reporting that...
Scientists have figured out how to brew morphine using the same kit used to make beer at home.
They have genetically modified yeast to perform the complicated chemistry needed to convert sugar to morphine.
Further...
If you brew beer at home, then you are relying on microscopic yeast that turns sugars into alcohol. But by borrowing DNA from plants, scientists have been genetically engineering yeasts that can perform each of the steps needed to convert sugar into morphine. One stage of the process - the production of an intermediary chemical called reticuline - had been a stumbling block.
That has been solved by a team at the University of California, Berkeley, and the scientists say it should now be possible to put all the steps together and "brew" morphine.
Dr John Dueber, a bioengineer at the university, said: "What you really want to do from a fermentation perspective is to be able to feed the yeast glucose, which is a cheap sugar source, and have the yeast do all the chemical steps required downstream to make your target therapeutic drug.
"With our study, all the steps have been described, and it's now a matter of linking them together and scaling up the process. It's not a trivial challenge, but it's doable."
Abstract from Nature.
[Editor's Comment: Original Submission]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Tuesday May 26 2015, @04:48PM
Actually it does. This research is at once cool, and risky. There are multitudes of wild yeasts floating around reproducing themselves and doing interesting things -- and this yeast if it escapes the lab and can self-reproduce will do that as well. If it out-competes other yeasts, we could find a lot of our foods and drinks that sit around a bit, start making us high. I have nothing against drug use -- I think all drugs should be legalized -- but I personally don't want to be a morphine zombie even accidentally. I know this is sort of Sci-Fear-ish ... I just hope they would also figure out a way to prevent these engineered yeasts from self-replicating because the world in general, is a great place for yeast.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Tuesday May 26 2015, @05:14PM
If it out-competes other yeasts
That would be very unlikely if its blowing valuable, limited ATP on making humans high and its neighbor spends the same energy on replicating faster or tolerating weirder environmental conditions.
The contamination issue is likely to be a very severe problem, all you need is a stray spore, and suddenly you've got a batch of grain alcohol instead of what you were hoping for.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Tuesday May 26 2015, @07:25PM
Yea, that would suck! I constantly worry about normal yeast getting into my coca-cola and turning it into fine whiskey, or whatever fermented coke turns into (I assume it's fine whiskey).
(Score: 4, Informative) by hemocyanin on Tuesday May 26 2015, @09:40PM
No yeast makes whiskey. Some yeasts make a desirable set of alcohols which are the precursor ingredients to whiskeys after much processing. Anyway, chances are that if you leave that Coke sitting around long enough, something will grow. It might be mold, it might be yeast -- even OJ has a small amount of alcohol in it from wild yeasts. http://quezi.com/14067 [quezi.com]
There's a fruit that gets reliably boozy sitting on the ground that animals in Africa love -- the funniest part in this video is the elephant who can't even stand up, desperately reaching out with his trunk for another fruit laying on the ground. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50tlF3kGbT4 [youtube.com]
Anyway, the general answer is that anything with sugar you leave out in the environment, is going to ferment in some way. But not into whiskey. Tangent: Springbank Distillery tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffIDf_WtKpk [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday May 27 2015, @01:03AM
It's easy enough to make sour dough bread using wild yeasts. Make a paste out of flour and water, and leave it in a warm place for a week, removing half the paste every day, and refreshing it with more flour and water, and after a few days of awful old socks smells, it turns into a great starter for amking your own bread.
According to the various great how-tos on the internet sour dough bread made this way tastes different depending on where you live.