Researchers find a way to cut wine hangovers
{{#rendered}} {{/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.
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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}It allows the genetic engineering of polyploid strains, specifically Saccharomyces cerevisiae—which you're more likely to know as baker's yeast, Jove notes. Researchers are calling the engineered result a "jailbreaking" yeast.
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.
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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}(It's not just the genetics involved in winemaking that affect your hangover risk: Your own genes do, too, according to research last year.)
This article originally appeared on Newser: Scientists Find a Way to Cut Wine Hangovers
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