Researchers have harnessed the power of baker's yeast to create a cost-effective and highly efficient approach for unraveling how plants synthesize medicinal compounds, and used the new method to identify key enzymes in a kratom tree.
Cornell researchers have harnessed the power of baker's yeast to create a cost-effective and highly efficient approach for unraveling how plants synthesize medicinal compounds, and used the new method to identify key enzymes in a kratom tree.
Once gene candidates are predicted using plant transcriptomics, baker's yeast -- the same kind used for brewing beer and baking bread -- is engineered with the genes inside to see which ones produce proteins that interact with each other. As a result, the number of genes that must then be biochemically screened is significantly reduced.
The yeast-based method led to the identification of six kratom enzymes from 20 candidates predicted by genetic screening to produce mitragynine or other targeted chemicals. Subsequent biochemical testing showed that none of the 14 discarded candidates were functional enzymes, while four of the six identified by the yeast-based method were functional. Li said the method's accuracy opens the door for a more efficient discovery process and continued research on the kratom tree.
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