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**Scallywag** · 12-21-2010, 05:37 PM

I'm studying for my masters degree in Biotechnology. I came across this while browsing:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100929105642.htm

Maybe I found a new career choice after the Navy!

Justibone · 12-21-2010, 06:17 PM

Odd that they would do a proteome on beer, considering that it doesn't have its own expression machinery... but then again, it does make sense. What type of beer did they use? Which yeast? I'm sure you could have as many "beer proteomes" as you have types of beer...

Brewogie · 12-21-2010, 10:50 PM

Indeed, I would say wrong word to describe a protein assay of a beer. But the paper is not bad, Alot of work for sure, and using LC-MS/MS for beer is pretty crazy.

I guess you could do a general profile of each beer and test to ensure future batches look the same on the 2D gel...

JohnMc · 12-22-2010, 12:33 AM

It'd be really cool if they could come up with a few key "good batch" and "bad batch" markers.
Beyond that, knowing what comes from yeast vs. barley vs. hops, and later, which yeast, which hops and which barley, can help predict and design for excellence. Or at least I hope so.

Justibone · 12-22-2010, 11:09 AM

Imagine if they could genetically manipulate the yeast to make all the wheat proteins in the right proportions, so you could make great beer from just sugar water. Brewing on an interstellar voyage to Alpha Centauri would be a lot more feasible at that point.

{sorry to sci-fi-geek-out for a sec, there}

Brewogie · 12-22-2010, 11:43 AM

Thats not really that impossible, Yeah yeast take a bit more to coax into making custom proteins, but yeast have ridiculous genetic power. Making plant proteins may be a bit far though.

But the beer protein profile is a good idea

Justibone · 12-22-2010, 11:48 AM

The difficulty is in getting the yeast to secrete compounds.

Brewogie · 12-22-2010, 11:55 AM

damn cell wall! That is very true, tagging the proteins with the proper export sequence is not an easy task

Justibone · 12-22-2010, 12:30 PM

I was at a talk where the presenter said,

"If any of you can solve this {secretion} problem, I can promise you seven-figure compensation from my pharmaceutical collaborators."

Yeah, they want it *that* bad... lol.

By the time we can voyage between stars, though, we'll probably have it figured out.

JohnMc · 12-22-2010, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justibone

The difficulty is in getting the yeast to secrete compounds.

Justibone, you mean secondary metabolites/small compounds, rather than proteins/peptides?

It's pretty easy to get yeast to export proteins and peptides. Getting it done in an active, FDA approved form is another thing!
Yeast invertase is secreted, as are the mating peptides, alpha and a (no symbol font that I could see for the alpha). One engineers the signal peptide from one of those onto the 5' end of the gene of interest (or n-terminus, if you prefer protein terminology over DNA). There are two big bugaboos for proteins that I remember. One is the fairly high probability of hyperglycosylation (O-linked, if I recall correctly). I recall an example of a 14 kD protein being hyperglycosylated to greater than 100 kD. Another is having them active or at least folded properly; some proteins just don't take to export kindly.
Some use Kluyveromyces lactis and Pichia pastoris to get around some of this, but I'm not sure I'd want beer made with those.

Quote:

By the time we can voyage between stars, though, we'll probably have it figured out.

ORACO, commander. How's that for sci-fi geeking out?

A few good Saturday afternoons were wasted on that show.