Producing TRPs: Is Genetically Modified Fungi an Option?

[YoungPhysicist]

Transient Receptor Potential cation channels, or TRPs, are special proteins on us which can detect temperature changes or special chemical substances. Like menthol to TRPM8 , or Capsaicin to TRPV1.

Is there any current research that are trying to produce these sort of receptors via genetically modified fungi or synthesize it from scratch?I can’t seem to find any.After all, these things are quite useful if being mass produced and aren’t harder to produce than some enzymes and hormones(?) which some fungi has been modified to produce them(like Insulin and lactase)

 

[BillTre]

I don't have an exact answer, but I did a quick google search for"genetically modified Transient Receptor Potential cation channels" and got this.

Among the results was this abstract, (full article behind pay wall) which among other things says:

The analysis of transgenic models allows further extrapolations of TRP channel deficiency to human physiology and disease.

transgenic model means that the gene was expressed on something (details should be in the article). Not clear if it is bacteria, fungi, plant, or animal.

I know of a lab at Caltech (Henry Lester's lab) that a lot of potassium and other neural channels have been modified, expressed, and electrophysiologically studied in unfertilized Xenopus eggs (this is easy for several reasons).
This has allowed them to be molecularly dissected to determine which parts affect which functions.
This sounds like the approach you have in mind.

Similar things may be done in fungi (like yeast?), but the large size of the Xenopus eggs makes the injections and electrical records very easy and highly reproducible.
Yeast are very small in comparison.

 

[atyy]

Transient Receptor Potential cation channels, or TRPs, are special proteins on us which can detect temperature changes or special chemical substances. Like menthol to TRPM8 , or Capsaicin to TRPV1.

Is there any current research that are trying to produce these sort of receptors via genetically modified fungi or synthesize it from scratch?I can’t seem to find any.After all, these things are quite useful if being mass produced and aren’t harder to produce than some enzymes and hormones(?) which some fungi has been modified to produce them(like Insulin and lactase)

It's not obvious that that would be useful. The receptors function in membranes, and just putting them around cells will not get them inserted into the cell membrane.

One would probably try inserting the gene into a cell's DNA, if one wanted the cell to express the receptor.