Seonglae Cho- Taste: About 92% as sweet as sugar → almost no noticeable difference
- Calories: About 40% of sugar
- Blood sugar/insulin: Only 20-30% absorbed in small intestine → smaller blood sugar spike
- Cooking properties: Browning, volume retention → unlike artificial sweeteners, can be used directly in baking and cooking
Researchers at Tufts University developed a high-yield (up to 95%) biosynthesis process that converts glucose → tagatose using genetically modified E. coli. This essentially solves the cost and efficiency problems compared to existing chemical/enzymatic processes (yield 40-77%).
Reversal of the Leloir pathway to promote galactose and tagatose synthesis from glucose
Love and Toomey et al. demonstrate a whole-cell process that converts glucose directly to the rare sugar D-tagatose by reversing the Leloir pathway. Structural and biochemical analyses reveal how a specific phosphatase drives pathway flux, enabling a new route for sustainable tagatose production.
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-physical-science/fulltext/S2666-3864(25)00592-2?utm_source=chatgpt.com
