yeast

Other familiar model organisms include mice, fruit flies and baker's yeast.

But the greatest difficulty proved to be activating yeast — a tricky yet crucial step when making leavened bread and similar baked goods.

That same energy — careful attention to detail, generosity, ritualistic devotion — maps almost perfectly onto sourdough culture: people exchanging starters, mentoring newbies on Reddit, obsessing over hydration ratios, even running “starter hotels” for friends’ yeast cultures.

It's in this lab that, using gene editing, Prof Wright's team successfully made a yeast that can produce the six sterols that bees need.

The process starts with yeast that has been genetically modified to produce casein, the key protein in milk, instead of alcohol.