I read about the 2011 IGEM project to build a modified yeast producing vitamin-A.
If you hadn’t heard yet, IGEM also invented the “golden rice”. A GMO rice strain that cause the rice to produce and accumulate in the grain extra quantities of beta-carotine that is converted to vitamin A in the human body. Neat, but apparently, fear of GMO food led to golden rice not to turn into a commercial success.
Something similar can be done with yeast strains (apparently, any yeast strain): There’s a nice Youtube video about it, too, it looks like a modest lab could produce it with a few orderable ingredients.
Now, I really like baking bread, and wouldn’t mine being fortified with beta-carotene (GMO or not). But it seems hard to find “golden yeast” commercially. I could follow the instructions in the video and make my own, but it looks like I would have to invest in a bunch of lab equipment and time.
Being lazy, I wonder if someone has a golden yeast sourdough starter ready that and is willing to share. As you might know, sourdough started can be kept and multiplied easily and indefinitely, so I’d need only a tiny amount to get started.
So if you happen to have some golden yeast (or know where to commercially order some), please let me know in the comments.
Written on July 14, 2020