Science
Related: About this forumForget Growing Weed--Make Yeast Spit Out CBD and THC Instead.
Source: Wired
Forget Growing WeedMake Yeast Spit Out CBD and THC Instead.
WE AS A species would be miserable without yeast. Baker's yeast has given us leavened bread for thousands of years. And I dont even want to begin to imagine a world without beer and wine, which rely on yeast to convert sugar into alcohol.
Now researchers have turned to yeast to do something more improbable: manufacturing the cannabis compounds CBD and THC. By loading brewers yeast with genes from the cannabis plant, theyve turned the miracle microbes into cannabinoid factories. Its a clever scheme in a larger movement to methodically pick apart and recreate marijuanas many compounds, to better understand the plants true potential.
The process goes like this. Two different yeasts produce either THC or CBD, depending on what kind of enzyme they carry. Importantly, both carry the cannabis genes that produce CBGA. CBGA is this kind of central cannabinoid that's the mother of all the other cannabinoids, says UC Berkeley chemical engineer Jay Keasling, coauthor on a new paper in Nature detailing the technique.
To make THC, that yeast produces CBGA, which then turns into THCA thanks to the yeast's particular enzyme. For the CBD yeast, its own particular enzyme turns the CBGA mother cannabinoid into CBDA. (Alphabet soup, I know, but stick with me.) Now you've got THCA and CBDA, which turn into THC and CBD with the application of heat.
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Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/yeast-cbd-and-thc/
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Related: Complete biosynthesis of cannabinoids and their unnatural analogues in yeast (Nature)
yonder
(9,666 posts)There was a section describing how one could graft weed to a hops plant and voilla!, you've got weed that looked liked hops. I don't know if it works or not, but I clicked on this post thinking I might be able to modify that unused, old 5 gallon carboy into something that might make me some THC.
Damn. I guess not. They're talking jeans and dee en a. All that sciency stuff which is way above my pay grade. I'm stuffin that carboy back under the workbench.
bahrbearian
(13,466 posts)I always wanted to try that, maybe this summer. Wish I would have saved the book, I just threw it out a couple years ago. $199
https://www.ebay.com/itm/THE-CULTIVATORS-HANDBOOK-OF-MARIJUANA-1970-by-Bill-Drake-First-Edition-Revised-/261466403443
Wounded Bear
(58,662 posts)mitch96
(13,909 posts)Now THAT would be cool... Super duper cannabigerolic acid (CBGA) sourdough bread...
I wonder how fast it would sell at Whole Foods/Trader Joe's???
m
rusty quoin
(6,133 posts)The River
(2,615 posts)will buy the patents and kill the tech.
Illicit yeast will be sold on street corners.
Yeast Cartels will flourish.
Oh the Horror!
central scrutinizer
(11,650 posts)I love growing my girls and watching them develop, then the harvest, drying, curing. Yeast? No thanks.