How to Create Millions of Liters of Juice from One Grapefruit

Grapefruit juice is used in a lot of things. The compound found within it, Nootkatone, is used as a natural flavoring substance in soda and as a biopharmaceutical component and as a natural insect repellent. Now, researchers have created a new method to create Nootkatone from just sugar.

"We have installed new genetic information in the yeast Pichia pastorisso that our cells are able to produce Nootkatone from sugar," said Tamara Wriessnegger, one of the researchers, in a news release.

The gnome of the yeast cells has been extended with the help of four foreign genes derived from various plants and baker's yeast. Ultimately, the aroma found in one grapefruit can lead to millions of liters of juice.

With the help of the new genes, the yeast is capable of synthesizing the natural flavor in a cheap way and in useful quantities. Nootkatone is an important substance for the food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries and as an insecticide, it's effective against ticks, mosquitoes and bedbugs. In the medical field, it's been effective against cancer cell lines.

"With our method, the important and expensive terpenoid Nootkatone can be produced industrially in an environmentally friendly, economical and resource-saving way in useful quantities," said Harald Pichler, one of the researchers.

Because this substance can now be produced in larger quantities, it can be used in far more applications. It's extremely useful in many different substances and this latest finding could lower the cost of producing these substances immensely.

The findings are published in the journal Metabolic Engineering.

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