Yeast Pick Up the Sweet Slack

The holiday season can be a time of excess, but low- or no-calorie sweeteners could help merry-makers stay trim. Stevia is a zero-calorie sweetener that is sometimes called “natural” because it is extracted from the leaves of a South American plant. Now, a report describes a way to prepare large quantities of stevia using yeast, which would cut out the plant middleman and could lead to a better tasting product.

In the stevia plant, a series of enzymes turn glucose into molecules called glucosides that retain sugary sweetness without the calories. The plant produces a variety of glucosides, but some have a bitter aftertaste. Others are minor glucosides in the plant, but because of their pleasant properties, they could be developed into next-generation sweeteners. So, to make a sweeter sweetener and to make lots of it, researchers wanted to take the glucoside-making machinery out of the plant and into yeast, where they could more easily tweak enzymes to optimize stevia production.

The researchers created a platform for testing enzyme combinations to see which mixture produced the highest yield of stevia molecules in yeast. They started with the enzymes from the stevia plant, but also used some related enzymes from a plant in the mustard family, which improved yield. The authors say that their results represent a step toward the commercial production of a new generation of better-tasting no-calorie sweeteners.

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Bioengineered yeast used as opioids

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 Scientists have invented a speedy method to make potent painkilling opioids using bioengineered baker's yeast instead of poppies, but need to improve the process to make it commercially viable.

The new method, if it can be made more efficient, could greatly change the  medication manufacturing business, but there are concerns about increasing the growing problem of opioid abuse.

This same type of approach potentially also could be used to make other currently plant-based medicines for fighting cancer, infectious diseases and chronic illnesses.

The scientists said they altered the yeast's genetic make-up in a way that coaxed the cells to convert sugar into two opioids - hydrocodone and thebaine - in three to five days.

Hydrocodone, shuts down pain receptors in the brain, and related chemicals like morphine and oxycodone are part of a group of painkilling drugs called opioids produced from the opium poppy. Making opioids this way is faster than making opium from poppies, which can take more than a year.

This is an important development, as it may provide an alternative supply for these essential medicines and allow greater access for most of the global population that currently has insufficient access to pain medication.

The researchers are concerned about worsening the growing abuse of these painkillers by some, as now they can be produced faster than before.

Researchers  inserted DNA into the yeast that encodes instructions for the cells to make the enzymes necessary to perform the sugar conversion steps.

The baker's yeast was engineered with 23 genes from six different organisms: the brown rat, the goldthread herb, the California poppy, the Iranian poppy, the opium poppy and a soil bacterium called Pseudomonas putida.

The process unveiled by researchers shows proof that the bioengineered yeast can produce small amounts of opioid painkillers from scratch. Currently, about 4,400 gallons of bioengineered yeast would be needed to yield a single dose of the medication.

Researcher said the process needs to be improved to make it efficient enough for commercial production, saying this could take several years. But it is worth the wait for future patients, as surely it won't be addictive like opioids, hopefully.