Document Type
Poster Session
Department
Southern Maine Community College
Faculty Mentor
Daniel Moore, PhD
Abstract
THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids have modern and historical uses in medicine. Studying these cannabinoids has been challenging due to the classification of these substances as narcotics and due to legal issues surrounding the plant, Cannabis sativa. This literature review discusses some of the manipulations and modifications of biosynthetic pathways in Saccharomyces cerevisiae that have been done by researchers. Genes from Cannabis sativa and other organisms have been added to yeast so that enzymes are produced to metabolize THC and other cannabinoids from simple sugars. Modifying an organism to produce certain chemical substances is more complex than modifying an organism to code for a particular polypeptide. Occasionally novel substances not found in nature are produced. The development of reliable, lab-sustainable production of known and new biochemicals has great potential.
Open Access?
1
Biosynthesis of Cannabinoids in S. cerevisiae
THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids have modern and historical uses in medicine. Studying these cannabinoids has been challenging due to the classification of these substances as narcotics and due to legal issues surrounding the plant, Cannabis sativa. This literature review discusses some of the manipulations and modifications of biosynthetic pathways in Saccharomyces cerevisiae that have been done by researchers. Genes from Cannabis sativa and other organisms have been added to yeast so that enzymes are produced to metabolize THC and other cannabinoids from simple sugars. Modifying an organism to produce certain chemical substances is more complex than modifying an organism to code for a particular polypeptide. Occasionally novel substances not found in nature are produced. The development of reliable, lab-sustainable production of known and new biochemicals has great potential.
