Expressing functional enzymes across kingdoms is always hype as shit (especially when the product is something interesting). That is the really impressive bit in this study because of the painstaking optimization to get proteins to fold correctly and even be expressed. One technique I always find cool is codon optimization. This is where they change the dna sequence for protein coding genes in ways that keeps the amino acid sequence the same. A codon is a 3 base sequence that codes for a given amino acid.There are 20 amino acids that can be created from DNA, but 61 codons so most amino acids have multiple codons that will work. Different organisms will have preferred codons which can influence rate of protein translation and even protein folding.
"The production levels achieved here under controlled fermentation conditions do not enable home brew of these drugs and also are not economically competitive with poppy farming for supplying either licit or illicit markets. Specifically, at the titers reported here (<1 μg/liter), a single dose of hydrocodone, as used in Vicodin (5 mg), would require thousands of liters of fermentation broth, which no home brewer would reasonably pursue. Such improvements are not merely a matter of fermentation scale-up and would require additional research to achieve the necessary strain and pathway improvements. Thus, the work reported here does not provide a “recipe” for making opioid drugs in a manner that directly undermines public health or security. Nonetheless, as a safeguard of future public health, our yeast strains only produce opioids (e.g., hydrocodone, thebaine) with reduced potential for diversion to illicit markets due to the added steps and cost of chemically converting these specific compounds to heroin."
I like their ass cover statement in the discussion. They are acting like they have never heard of hydromorphone or gasp acetylated hydromorphone.
