• Question: i was reading the interview and i saw that you made bacteria smell like rasberries how did you do that? it seems so awesome

    Asked by anon-200585 to Jordan on 7 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Jordan Kirby

      Jordan Kirby answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      Hi Bethany,
      .
      This was an experement done to show how genes can be manipluated in bacterial DNA to make bacteria do some interesting things! The short answer was: we added a gene from another bacteria (you will have to forgive me i cant remember the exact gene) into an E.coli bacteria which produced a chemical compound called ethyl formate when we grew it on a special medium.
      .
      Ethyl formate is an ester (which you might know about if you do chemistry!) and has a strong smell which is often described as smelling of rum/raspberries (mine just smelled really strongly of raspberries though!).
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      It was a really cool experiment that demonstrated well on how modern genetic engineering can be used by humans to produce useful stuff for us!
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      Hope that answered your question, if it didnt let me know and ill get back to you!

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