You eat and drink E. coli poop and like it. The ‘artificial sweetener,’ aspartame, is manufactured through a process of genetically engineering E. coli bacteria. A plasmid, which is a small DNA molecule that is physically separate from, and can replicate independently of, chromosomal DNA within a cell, is used which introduces genes into E. coli bacteria. Next the genes are incorporated into the bacterial DNA which then increases the production of enzymes that enhance the production of phenylalanine. The bacteria continue to produce more phenylalanine becoming tiny aspartame factories. Another, not so pretty, way to look at it is that aspartame is E. coli excrement.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 20:06:35 +0000