this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2024
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As always, it would be simpler to use yeast... It's going to get wild when these yeast strains get into the illicit market and people are literally brewing up coke or morphine in their bathtub.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/scientists-have-made-cocaine-from-a-tobacco-plant
I have actually wondered why this isn't a thing. You can order a yeast 2.0 sample from a supplier and the relevant DNA strand from a DNA printing company, multiply the DNA and introduce it to the yeast and you're game.
I think it's the "introduce it to the yeast" part that's the hard part. But I can't imagine the types of precautions the people who already have a morphine producing yeast strain (yes some people already invented it) must take. The illicit value of that is like priceless.
As I understand the process is fairly straightforward - yeast picks up dna from the environment, so the process involves creating a dna strain which includes both the intended change and a marker change, like resistance to something that would normally kill the yeast. Then introduce the dna to the yeast and introduce the poison which will kill the yeast that didn't pick up the dna.
Anyway, that's what I seem to remember from synth bio course from years ago, I might have misunderstood tho.
The hard part for someone trying to do it in a bathtub would probably be making sure it picks up the dna you're wanting and not something else randomly from the environment
That's why you introduce the marker (like resistance to a common antibiotic ) in the same strand, then put antibiotic in the bathtub to kill the rest. Of course its a good idea to wash the tank first...
Instructions unclear. My wife is now asking why the bathtub is full of syrup. Please send help.
Let's maximize that yield. A thousand cultures an a bit of radioactive substance to up the mutation rate. It could be automated.