If wine tends to give you a hangover, science may have a solution, and it starts with a \"genome knife.\" The phrase refers to an enzyme called RNA-guided Cas9 nuclease that's able to knock down a longstanding hurdle to genetic engineering in fermented foods, a researcher at the University of Illinois explains in a press release. <\/p>\n
It's a little complicated, but the strains of yeast that ferment wine (along with beer and bread) are \"polyploid\" strains. Those strains \"contain multiple copies of genes in the genome,\" says Yong-Su Jin, whose study was published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. <\/p>\n
The difficulty comes into play when you try to alter a gene in one copy of the genome. Essentially, you can't: \"An unaltered copy would correct the one that had been changed.\" The enzyme fixes that problem. <\/p>\n
It allows the genetic engineering of polyploid strains, specifically Saccharomyces cerevisiaewhich you're more likely to know as baker's yeast, Jove notes. Researchers are calling the engineered result a \"jailbreaking\" yeast. <\/p>\n
Engineered yeast could make wine healthier by boosting the amount of a nutrient called resveratrol \"by 10 times or more,\" Jin notes. As for post-booze headaches, the \"genome knife\" could act on what's known as malolactic fermentation, which can result in hangover-inducing toxic substances. <\/p>\n
That's good news, though Medical Daily reports that the variety of factors leading to hangovers likely means such a product wouldn't get rid of them completely. <\/p>\n
(It's not just the genetics involved in winemaking that affect your hangover risk: Your own genes do, too, according to research last year.) <\/p>\n
This article originally appeared on Newser: Scientists Find a Way to Cut Wine Hangovers <\/p>\n
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Researchers find a way to cut wine hangovers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If wine tends to give you a hangover, science may have a solution, and it starts with a \"genome knife.\" The phrase refers to an enzyme called RNA-guided Cas9 nuclease that's able to knock down a longstanding hurdle to genetic engineering in fermented foods, a researcher at the University of Illinois explains in a press release. It's a little complicated, but the strains of yeast that ferment wine (along with beer and bread) are \"polyploid\" strains. Those strains \"contain multiple copies of genes in the genome,\" says Yong-Su Jin, whose study was published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Continue reading