• appel@whiskers.bim.boats
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    1 year ago

    Afaik, it depends on where the medicine came from, if it’s from a eukaryote (compounds from plants, fungi, animals) then it may be glycosylated, and you’d therefore have to produce it in a host that supports glycosylation (another eukaryote). I think prokaryotes also have some features of transcription and translation that make them different to eukaryotes, but I can’t remember off the top of my head.

    But to be honest, I think the point of this may be that growing stuff in a plant is easier than using a bioreactor or flask.

    For a plant, you need:

    • Soil
    • Water
    • Light
    • A bag of seeds

    For a bioreactor you need:

    • A bioreactor (not cheap)
    • Sterilisation equipment
    • Closed processing equipment (tubes, filters, tube welders)
    • Bioreactor control device
    • Biological safety cabinet to work in
    • Sterile media, probably with specific additives depending on your cell line
    • All of the numerous plastic consumables used in modern labs
    • Liquid nitrogen storage of cells
    • Probably some more stuff

    Dunno about you, but the former sounds easier to do in a space station to me.

    EDIT: didn’t consider extraction of the molecule, in both cases of plant and microbial production, that would require eome specific equipment. Probably centrifuges and chromatography required for both.

    • Salamander@mander.xyzM
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      1 year ago

      Those are some great points, thank you! I wasn’t aware (and if I ever was, I forgot!) that glycosylation was much more common in eukaryotes than in prokaryotes - that is very interesting.

      EDIT: didn’t consider extraction of the molecule, in both cases of plant and microbial production, that would require eome specific equipment. Probably centrifuges and chromatography required for both.

      Still, I think that the technical requirements for an extraction are much more accessible than an industrial a bioreactor setup. So your points still stand.

      • externelly@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Another point I can think of is that storing a bunch of seeds in tubes at room temperature for many decades is trivial compared to cryo-storing microbes. Might make it easier to handle if you decide to produce the genetically engineered plants on earth. Just collect a few seeds from each strain that produces a specific useful thing and germinate the seeds when you need it