Genetically Modified Tequila Bacteria Can Produce Cannabinoids

A German pharmaceutical company Farmako patented a process that allows genetically modified bacteria to produce bio-synthetic cannabinoids.

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The bacteria in question - Zymomonas mobilis - that are normally used to produce tequila could provide us with up to thousand times cheaper substances produced by growing hemp as it is the first ever technique of producing cannabinoids that doesn't require yeast. The Farmako company claims that getting rid of the yeast can simplify the industrial extraction of cannabinoids by quite a lot. This is because during production that uses yeast we need to separate the yeast and cannabinoids from each other after the synthesis finishes. On the other hand, the new bacteria release the cannabinoids directly into the surrounding medium allowing for continuous production.

The scientists removed parts of the Zynomonas mobilis genome, specifically parts that allow the bacteria to create alcohol and replaced them with genetic material from the pathogen responsible for malaria and from hemp. This resulted in the creation of a new species named Zymomonas cannabinoidis.

On top of this, Zymomonas cannabinoidis is not only of producing more than 180 of known cannabinoids but is also capable of easy switching between which one is produced by just switching a single gene.

Sources:

• http://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/03/27/1780894/0/en/Genetically-modified-tequila-bacterium-produces-cannabinoids-from-sugar-Farmako-applies-for-a-worldwide-patent.html

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