Brewers yeast genetically modified to produce THC and CBD

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/02/28/yeast-are-genetically-modified.html

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So directly produced hash-oil, skipping all the in-between steps of growing the plants and extracting the ingredients.

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Oh great.

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That’s interesting, but it feels like a short-sighted mistake. There are other compounds in the plant that facilitate or enhance the action of CBD and THC, some of which appear to have their own benefits.

On the other hand, when you find a specific strain or percentage ratio that really works for you, it’s nice to have it available. So I can see some long-term advantages, too.

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I saw this posted, elsewhere, earlier today and the overall reaction was negative. This doesn’t replace buds for smoking. This does remove the entire plant growing process and cost for producing edibles, concentrates and oils which I think could be a good thing to reduce cost and unnecessary environmental impact of the the growing process when not necessary.

ETA: Most of the higher grade concentrates are blends from multiple extractions since a single technique cannot get both a good yield of THC and flavorful terpenes in a single pass. So the bulk THC could come from the yeast and the extra delicate terpenes from flowers.

ETA:

Thank you. Spell check was not my friend this time. :slight_smile:

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Where do I place my order?

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Science will open the floodgates on cheap, reliable high-volume production of THC and CBD. Yeast’s rapid growth and ease of culturing will likely enable new stronger-better-faster variants of both.

I’m so happy I think I pooped my pants.

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Without terpenes and other minor cannabinoids, THC and CBD are simple commodities. There is nothing complex, expensive, or done correctly environmentally detrimental about extracting them from cannabis. This would have been mindblowing ten years ago, but now that cannabis is legal in many places, there’s really not a need for this.

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Huh. when I was reading canada’s law that finally legalized cannabis, I remember that there was some language that seemed to anticipate something like this - at the time I thought it seemed kind of funny and unlikely to be immediately relevant

produce, in respect of cannabis, means to obtain it by any method or process, including by


(d) cultivating, propagating or harvesting it or any living thing from which it may be extracted or otherwise obtained. (production)

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*terpenes not terpentines.

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Where this really gets interesting is modifying yeast to produce, say, heroin or cocaine. If a lab at UCB can do it today, a hobbyist in a garage can probably do it in 5 years.

Of course, I’m not convinced that will on the whole be a bad thing. It would completely destroy the global drug smuggling infrastructure.

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mmm yummy genetically modified yeast- thc edibles. I wonder if Mcdonalds will want in on this? .

in another note maybe in 5-10 years there will product lines of cbd pet food for older pets lining supermarket shelves.

in another note i wonder if they could genetically modify a yeast infection to produce thc and cbd think of the possibilities.

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image

The only important question here is where can I get a 5 g sachet of the stuff?

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So, you could make a beer that naturally contains alcohol, THC and CBD in one go with standard ingredients and this yeast?

com-optimize%20(10)

Smoke yeast everyday.

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Why all this talk of beer?
I look forward to getting toasted on toast.

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Saccharomyces cerevisiae crossfadiae

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Where was this scientific gumption before pot started becoming legalized?

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In dank basements.

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Somebody slips a small quantity out of the lab in 5…4…3…

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