In Theory
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I was joking around with some classmates the other day and hypothesized that a professor had engineered his E. coli to produce crack. I thought about it a little more, what would it take for a bacteria to produce cocaine?
It’s not a protein, so you can’t just clone the gene for it. There has to be some biochemical pathway to produce it, and fortunately, that pathway already exists in cocoa plants. So could you clone the genes for the enzymes in that pathway into your bacteria of choice and get coke out of it? It’s probably not that simple. There are indubitably some peculiarities in the functioning of the enzymes that will get lost in the translation from plants to bacteria. Then there’s the matter of purifying your product.
Sure, it’s theoretically possible. But it would be wise to try the idea out on something that’s not illegal.
Darren Franks on 30 September 2003 at 1:56 pm | Permalink
cut to the chase and get the damn bacteria to shit out Gold bars…
Wedley on 5 November 2003 at 4:13 pm | Permalink
I believe this harkens back to my joke about cloning the mechanism for THC synthesis into regular ol’ tobacco plants… I think in High School or early days at UT. I remember our stoner friends were very interested in bankrolling the operation… but plant biology really isn’t my thing
All of this talk has me wondering about the implications of all the new fun Patriot act (and related acts) regulations on simply *talking* about doing something illegal being a federal crime, even if you have no intent and possess no means to carry it out. Scary.