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Under these conditions, the researchers found the folate biosynthetic enzyme FolE2 to be conditionally essential, an enzyme that's not widely found in bacteria and that, ironically, makes it easy to exploit.

To to this, the organism needs a biosynthetic apparatus tailored to this process, which includes three enzymes that are responsible for the main synthesis steps.

This may be the longest biosynthetic pathway ever inserted into yeast.

"We can use this new biosynthetic process as a tool to change oil composition," Bates said.

The paper also reports a fascinating and unexpected twist concerned with biosynthetic gene clusters, or BGCs.