
Scientists brew cannabis using modified beer yeast - DoreenMichele
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00714-9
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dumbfoundded
As someone in this industry, I doubt this will become a reality. The real
problem is cost. When you use yeast, you have to supply the energy for the
entire system. When you grow a plant, you get free energy from the sun. The
cost savings are hard to beat. Nicotine extracts aren't made from yeast
either. That should be a big warning flag for the business sides of these cool
projects.

~~~
willvarfar
My understanding of illicit cannabis production is only from films like "Lock,
Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" but it seems to be heat lamps in basements and
caravans etc.

And the impression the news gives me is that UK Police regularly use heat
cameras from helicopters and analysis of electricity bills to find illegal
growers.

Would this approach allow test-tube illegal cultivation with a much less
detectable footprint?

~~~
quickthrower2
I was thinking this’ll take prison hooch to the next level

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std_throwawayay
One of the reasons why the prohibition of alcohol failed but cannabis is
illegal has to do with the DIY-supply. Everyone could brew some alcohol at
home. Growing a hemp field is not so easy to do undetected and therefore much
easier to enforce. Cheap artificial lighting did have some impact but this
yeast (if it works well) could be a real game changer.

~~~
Synaesthesia
The prohibition of cannabis also failed. More people than ever are using it,
and where it’s illegal it’s run by gangsters, the predictable outcome, exactly
the same as prohibition of alcohol.

Actually I think it’s easy to grow weed in your backyard with the sun, just
make sure to kill the male plants and you’re good. Whereas say growing tobacco
requires much more onerous and is generally done on large farms.

~~~
logfromblammo
I just had a vision of a bunch of cops growing exclusively male plants, and
concentrating the pollen in a centrifuge device, to be used later in
neighborhood foggers.

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hprotagonist
No, scientists brew THC and CBD using modified beer yeast.

Much as how coffee or tea have a lot of interesting things in them that are
not caffeine, cannabis has a host of interesting things in it that are neither
of those two primary cannabinoids.

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ozzmotik
yup I think that's something I'd actually call a true lifehack!

but that being said, it would be really interesting to see how a development
like this could influence the nation wide development of cannabis legislation,
especially down here in the Bible belt. granted I don't think it'll
necessarily have a huge impact but i think having a cheap and efficient source
of cannabinoids equalizing the market value and providing a larger pool to
experiment upon to help support the idea of cannabis legalization

but hey even if not it's cool to see what we can hack nature to do!

~~~
sandworm101
Until the next hacker crosses yeast and poppies to create home-brew opiods.
Very soon you might not need to be a chemistry teacher to found your own meth
empire. Some sugar water and a few drops of the right yeast might suffice.

~~~
cf498
That happened a while back

[https://engineering.stanford.edu/magazine/article/stanford-r...](https://engineering.stanford.edu/magazine/article/stanford-
researchers-genetically-engineer-yeast-produce-opioids)

~~~
spunch
Hasn't this been around for a little time also? Yeast Can Now Produce THC,
Marijuana’s Infamous Compound - September 15, 2015
[http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2015/09/15/modifie...](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2015/09/15/modified-
yeast-marijuana/)

~~~
dnautics
Those yeast were fed a precursor. There is however a patent that takes it all
the way from sugar.

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foxyv
This seems like a nice end-around for the argument that weed isn't medically
pure. I remember one of the arguments against medical marijuana was that CBD
and THC aren't the only active chemicals that weed is producing. In this case
you can create only the chemicals you want when conducting trials and
manufacturing pharmaceuticals.

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a_imho
How does yeast modification actually work?

~~~
jakobegger
You take a gene from a plant, change the codons to whatever yeast uses, and
then you put it into the yeast DNA.

The hard part is that presumably multiple genes are required to produce a
compound, and getting all of them to produce stuff at the right rate is
probably difficult as well, since we don't 100% understand how to regulate
gene expression.

~~~
a_imho
Thanks! Could you shed some more light on how one actually takes a gene from a
plant (in a lab setting I suppose) and put it into yeast?

~~~
Obi_Juan_Kenobi
* Extract RNA

* Reverse-transcribe this into DNA

* PCR amplify target sequence using custom primers. Generally you design the primers to create restriction sites flaking the sequence of interest.

* Restriction digest the amplicons

* Pop that into a cloning vector, e.g. Gateway

* Clone and isolate a colony

* Sanger sequence to confirm you've got what you want

* Move construct into expression vector

* Transform yeast with expression vector construct

* Sequence some colonies to find one that worked well (these vectors use resistance genes to provide an easy screening process)

* Once you've confirmed it worked, you're all set.

You can just use plasmids or do a stable transformation; the latter is harder
but it's what you'd want for commercial production I think.

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AllegedAlec
'hacked' is very quickly becoming one of my least favourite words. Just call
it what it is: it's not hacking, it's genetic modification.

~~~
dang
Ok we've modified the title.

~~~
klmr
Why? The original title was totally fine.

~~~
dang
If a user complains about a title being baity and they have a point, we tend
to change the title on the grounds that many other readers probably feel the
same way.

This was a borderline case but I think they had a small point that 'hacked'
was a bit baity. Also, the GP comment was heavily upvoted, indicating that a
lot of users agreed.

~~~
klmr
> and they have a point

But they don’t: the usage of “hack” in the title was squarely within the
original definition of “to hack” (for instance, it’s covered by definition 6
in the Jargon File if we accept [as is generally done in hacker culture] that
such hacks aren’t restricted to computer usage). In non-technical usage the
term “hack” tends to mean something else but given that HN literally has
“hacker” in its title, shouldn’t we accept correct usage of the word on this
site, even if it doesn’t fall outside its non-technical mainstream definition?

Speaking as a biologist, the usage of “hack” in the title is completely
idiomatic within the field (compare: “genome hacking”). The claim that this
usage is bait is simply factually incorrect.

> Also, the GP comment was heavily upvoted

On the contrary, it was downvoted (greyed out) at the time the title was
changed. It’s _now_ back to black.

~~~
dang
The baitiness comes from the over-use of the word in headlines. I don't
disagree with you but unfortunately accuracy is not the only concern.

Re the GP comment, I was referring to
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19299892](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19299892),
which was always upvoted and quickly reached a high positive score. When users
are expressing an allergic reaction like that, we've learned that it's best to
just yield. A modified title can be just as accurate and usually reduces
inflammation.

That said, I think your argument is at least as persuasive. We did the
standard moderation thing in this case because, as I said, it's proved to be
globally optimal. But it doesn't seem to have been locally optimal here.

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coldtea
> _Scientists brew cannabis using modified beer yeast_

There's no word in this title that I don't like!

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olefoo
THC and CBD is kind of meh. The real fun (for perverse values of fun) is when
someone starts making heroin starter that can reliably turn sugar into enough
opiate to risk an overdose.

And then bootleg biologics and other patent drugs, I would totally buy a yeast
that let me make my own Humira and let me control the supply; even if
possessing it meant a hefty prison term.

~~~
rwmj
They did that a while back:
[https://engineering.stanford.edu/magazine/article/stanford-r...](https://engineering.stanford.edu/magazine/article/stanford-
researchers-genetically-engineer-yeast-produce-opioids)

