3
In principle, any biological product should be able to be developed through microbial synthesis, with the appropriate choice of chassis. Indeed, this was the goal of the DARPA "1000 Molecules" program, which did indeed demonstrate it was possible to rapidly engineer new pathways for production of new biomolecules.
In practice, however, some ...
2
Seeds are made from cells in an amorphous metastable superviscous state because the cell's cytoplasm becomes a solid matrix of hydrogenated oil and sugar. The fats also contain a lot of anti-oxidants, so that ambient oxygen that can affect the dormant cells is absorbed by buffer chemicals.
The sugars and oils in the cell cytoplasm (the inside of the cell) ...
2
Not all can be produced.
Getting the correct glycosylation on proteins hasn't been systematically worked out. For example, to make human-compatible antibodies.
Many of the proteins are modified by multiple enzymes after production - this could require massive amounts of research to replicate.
Some biological products are just unknown mixtures.
1
I will answer my own question for anyone that's interested in doing something similar. First, a great reference for seed morphology is A. C. Martin's The Comparative Internal Morphology of Seeds (1954), available on JSTOR and from sci-hub.
To dissect a seed, you’ll probably want to have a good dissection microscope, two pairs of sharp tweezers, a razor blade,...
1
Plant leaves develop from leaf primordium or meristem tissue (this tissue has special properties that allow it to continue dividing to make more more cells, i.e. stem cells - not stem cells like cells in the stem but the technical term 'stem cells). Because of the hormone balances to maintain this division property the meristem tissue will remain close to ...
1
At least some plants have cellulases which can be used to cleave primers from mature cellulose chains.
Cellulose synthesis requires chain initiation and elongation (the two processes are separate). CesA glucosyltransferase initiates cellulose polymerization using a steroid primer and UDP-glucose. Cellulose synthase utilizes UDP-D-glucose precursors to ...
1
I do not believe that galls are categorically non-mutualistic. However, as noted above, ant domatia (of acacia at least) are not galls, the trees produce them in the absence of ants. However, the size and number of domatia seems to be mildly inducible by the presence of their symbiotic ants.
But back to galls as mutualistic, my argument is that seemingly ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
