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Ythan
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
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Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves 5
#28071507 - 11/27/22 12:51 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves www.newscientist.com
The complex biochemistry that sees coca plants make cocaine has been unpicked and replicated in a relative of the tobacco plant. Recreating the process by modifying other plants or microorganisms could lead to a way to manufacture the stimulant or produce chemically similar compounds with unique properties.
Biochemists have tried to map out how cocaine is made by the coca plant for more than a century, both because of its unique structure and for its uses in medicine, most recently as an anaesthetic. Much of this process had been identified, but there was still a missing link between cocaine and a chemical precursor called MPOA.
Now, Sheng-Xiong Huang at the Kunming Institute of Botany in China and his colleagues have found how to bridge this final gap by adding two previously missing enzymes during the process, known as EnCYP81AN15 and EnMT4.
Huang and his team then genetically modified a close relative of the tobacco plant, Nicotiana benthamiana, to produce cocaine using these two enzymes and found it could produce about 400 nanograms of cocaine per milligram of dried leaf, about a 25th of the level in a coca plant.
“At present, the available production of cocaine in tobacco is not enough to meet the demand on a mass scale,” says Huang, but the constructed biosynthetic pathway could be assembled in organisms with large biomass and quick growth, such as the bacterium Escherichia coli or the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, he says.
The demonstration of cocaine production in tobacco is an important proof of concept, says Benjamin Lichman at the University of York, UK. Transferring this mechanism to other microorganisms could have significant impacts on the supply of cocaine for research purposes. “It may allow pharmaceutical companies to ferment it, essentially, and so completely get rid of plant-based production. That will have huge impacts on supply chain and potentially impacts on, even, illicit production.”
But using other plants to produce cocaine won’t offer an advantage for illicit producers, says Lichman. Growing and harvesting coca, and purifying cocaine from naturally productive plant tissue, is orders of magnitude more scalable and cheaper than producing it in another plant, he says, but having the biosynthetic pathway mapped out could lead to the production of chemically similar compounds to cocaine that have unique medicinal properties.
Journal reference: Journal of the American Chemical Society, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c09091
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split_by_nine
i am the liquor
Registered: 07/11/18
Posts: 21,288
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Re: Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves [Re: Ythan]
#28071796 - 11/27/22 04:05 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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very cool!
-------------------- 🐴 hpoo or die
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PatrickKn
Registered: 07/10/11
Posts: 20,677
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Re: Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves [Re: split_by_nine] 3
#28071799 - 11/27/22 04:06 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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split_by_nine
i am the liquor
Registered: 07/11/18
Posts: 21,288
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Re: Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves [Re: PatrickKn]
#28071800 - 11/27/22 04:07 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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classic. i just rewatched that one a few days ago.
-------------------- 🐴 hpoo or die
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Hartford
Lawful Good
Registered: 11/27/19
Posts: 1,149
Loc: Tennessee
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Re: Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves [Re: Ythan]
#28071896 - 11/27/22 05:15 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Sheng-Xiong Huang!
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durian_2008
Cornucopian Eating an Elephant
Registered: 04/02/08
Posts: 17,596
Loc: Raccoon City
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Re: Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves [Re: Hartford]
#28072240 - 11/27/22 08:39 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Menthols were made illegal, here.
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ruawakeyet
Registered: 05/03/21
Posts: 1,862
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Re: Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves [Re: durian_2008]
#28072645 - 11/28/22 08:47 AM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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I don't support anything GMO, and this really sounds like a waste of time. Producing 1/25th as much cocaine as actual coca plants means that 25 times more plant material is required to obtain the same amount of cocaine. It's already a ridiculous ratio of plant material required to produce a kilo of blow.
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PatrickKn
Registered: 07/10/11
Posts: 20,677
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Re: Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves [Re: ruawakeyet] 1
#28072733 - 11/28/22 09:47 AM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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The yield isn't too important here.
Quote:
but the constructed biosynthetic pathway could be assembled in organisms with large biomass and quick growth, such as the bacterium Escherichia coli or the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, he says.
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Hartford
Lawful Good
Registered: 11/27/19
Posts: 1,149
Loc: Tennessee
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Re: Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves [Re: Ythan]
#28072774 - 11/28/22 10:30 AM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Coca is a very finicky plant that only produces well at high elevations, so any improvements in the ability to plant it elsewhere would be good, too.
But, I'm sure cigarette companies are interested in this new Coca-tobbacco.
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The Blind Ass
Bodhi
Registered: 08/16/16
Posts: 27,369
Loc: The Primordial Mind
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Re: Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves [Re: Hartford] 2
#28072786 - 11/28/22 10:44 AM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Tobacco & cocaine is a pretty nice combo imhoe. I'd strongly consider picking smoking back up again if someone could pull off getting a 2 in 1 ciggy out to market. Just so I could have a few cigs in the morning with my coffee and also after dinner/sex.
-------------------- Give me Liberty caps -or- give me Death caps
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ZeeBow
Registered: 03/19/18
Posts: 2,124
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Re: Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves [Re: Ythan] 1
#28072960 - 11/28/22 12:48 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Plow the fields, boys... We ain't growin' corn no mo'!
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durian_2008
Cornucopian Eating an Elephant
Registered: 04/02/08
Posts: 17,596
Loc: Raccoon City
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Re: Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves [Re: ZeeBow]
#28073076 - 11/28/22 01:55 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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I don't believe that any of the plants or animals we eat are in their ancestral forms.
Though, many have gone feral, reproduced, and created what are called landraces.
It is probably most ethical to stick to lower lifeforms in closed systems.
Also, there is a speculative law of robotics, in which there is ideally a kill switch, because unmitigated reproduction is assumed to be a cancer. The beginning and end of it might be written-in, as a matter of genetic construction.
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twighead
mͯó
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Re: Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves [Re: durian_2008]
#28074028 - 11/29/22 05:45 AM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Awwwesome:O
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pablokabute
Hari ng Amag
Registered: 11/22/11
Posts: 5,186
Loc: rural ghetto
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Re: Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves [Re: durian_2008]
#28075426 - 11/30/22 02:41 AM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
durian_2008 said:
Also, there is a speculative law of robotics, in which there is ideally a kill switch, because unmitigated reproduction is assumed to be a cancer. The beginning and end of it might be written-in, as a matter of genetic construction.
Where can we read more about this? Sounds interesting.
-------------------- Fermented Mushrooms!! --- https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/23378638/fpart/1/vc/1 'The second seal: “All CONTAMINATED things and events are unsatisfactory.”' "I envy you. You North Americans are very lucky. You are fighting the most important fight of all - you live in THE HEART OF THE BEAST." --Anonymous Guerilla, or is he..
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The Blind Ass
Bodhi
Registered: 08/16/16
Posts: 27,369
Loc: The Primordial Mind
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Re: Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves [Re: pablokabute]
#28075898 - 11/30/22 11:12 AM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Sounds Asimovish.
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durian_2008
Cornucopian Eating an Elephant
Registered: 04/02/08
Posts: 17,596
Loc: Raccoon City
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Re: Genetically modified tobacco plant produces cocaine in its leaves [Re: pablokabute]
#28076935 - 11/30/22 07:43 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
durian_2008 said: Also, there is a speculative law of robotics, in which there is ideally a kill switch, because unmitigated reproduction is assumed to be a cancer. The beginning and end of it might be written-in, as a matter of genetic construction.
Quote:
pablokabute said: Where can we read more about this? Sounds interesting.
Terminator seeds.
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