–Sheyashree Mondal, Amity University Kolkata
Plants have always been used to cure ailments by chewing, brewed or rubbed on body. Pharmaceutical companies import these plants from specialized farms and extract their active chemical compounds to produce drugs like scopolamine, atropine.
The factory-floor reprogramming of yeast has been carried out by the first author of the article, Dr. Prashanth Srinivasan. Each of the yeast organelles are workstation on an assembly line. Nucleus being the control centre. Electrons are used by cells to clasp or release molecules on the assembly line, and Srinivasan used them to make the products he desired– a family of complex chemical compounds called tropane alkaloids.
The team has spent three years making 34 genetic modifications to the yeast’s DNA to control every step in the chemical assembly process of tropane alkaloids. Their approach is called metabolic engineering, it is a more precise form of biotechnology in which genetic reprogramming uses or modifies naturally-occurring cellular processes to manufacture products to meet human needs.
“Plants are the world’s best chemists; we want to recapitulate their unique and useful chemistries in domesticated microbes to build complex molecules inspired by the natural world but tailored to better meet human needs.” Said Christina D. Smolke.
Source: Biosynthesis of medicinal tropane alkaloids in yeast, Prashanth Srinivasan and Christina D. Smolke, 2 September 2020, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2650-9
Recent studies show certain Microbiota treatments are backfiring!
–Raddur Samaddar, Amity University Kolkata Hypoxia is the talk of the town now, especially with the advent of COVID-19, curing of patients with severe levels of infection, escalating to respiratory problems, with oxygen-induced treatment is a major form of supportive care. Scientists have come up with a study that provides information on gut microbiota and […]