The Next Superfood: Cockroach Milk

[EnolaGaia]

There's one cockroach species that exhibits live birth, and the "milk" provided by adults to the young represents a notably complete, nutritious, and time-released form of nutrition.

Scientists Think Cockroach Milk Could Be a New Superfood, And We Wish We Were Kidding

An international team of scientists sequenced a protein crystal located in the midgut of cockroaches back in 2016. The reason?

It's more than four times as nutritious as cow's milk and the researchers think it could be the key to feeding our growing population in the future.

Although most cockroaches don't actually produce milk, Diploptera punctate, which is the only known cockroach to give birth to live young, has been shown to pump out a type of 'milk' containing protein crystals to feed its babies.

The fact that an insect produces milk is pretty fascinating – but what fascinated researchers is the fact that a single one of these protein crystals contains more than three times the amount of energy found in an equivalent amount of buffalo milk (which is also higher in calories than regular cow's milk).

Clearly milking a cockroach isn't the most feasible option, so an international team of scientists headed by researchers from the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine in India decided to sequence the genes responsible for producing the milk protein crystals to see if they could somehow replicate them in the lab.

"The crystals are like a complete food - they have proteins, fats and sugars. If you look into the protein sequences, they have all the essential amino acids," said Sanchari Banerjee, one of the team, in an interview with the Times of India back in 2016.

Not only is the milk a dense source of calories and nutrients, it's also time released.

As the protein in the milk is digested, the crystal releases more protein at an equivalent rate to continue the digestion.

"It's time-released food," said Subramanian Ramaswamy, who led the project.

"If you need food that is calorifically high, that is time released and food that is complete. This is it."

It's important to point out that this dense protein source is definitely never going to be for those trying to lose weight, and probably isn't even required for most western diets, where we are already eating too many calories per day.

But for those who struggle to get the amount of calories required per day, this could be a quick and easy way to get calories and nutrients. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/scient...e-a-new-superfood-and-we-wish-we-were-kidding

 

[EnolaGaia]

Here are the bibliographic particulars and abstract for the 2016 research paper that's the basis for promoting cockroach milk.

Structure of a heterogeneous, glycosylated, lipid-bound, in vivo-grown protein crystal at atomic resolution from the viviparous cockroach Diploptera punctata

Sanchari Banerjee, Nathan P. Coussens, François-Xavier Gallat, Nitish Sathyanarayanan, Jandhyam Srikanth, Koichiro J. Yagi, James S. S. Gray, Stephen S. Tobe, Barbara Stay, Leonard M. G. Chavasd,and Subramanian Ramaswamy
International Union of Crystallography Journal
Volume 3, Part 4, July 2016 Pages 282-293.

(abstract)

Macromolecular crystals for X-ray diffraction studies are typically grown in vitro from pure and homogeneous samples; however, there are examples of protein crystals that have been identified in vivo. Recent developments in micro-crystallography techniques and the advent of X-ray free-electron lasers have allowed the determination of several protein structures from crystals grown in cellulo. Here, an atomic resolution (1.2 Å) crystal structure is reported of heterogeneous milk proteins grown inside a living organism in their functional niche. These in vivo-grown crystals were isolated from the midgut of an embryo within the only known viviparous cockroach, Diploptera punctata. The milk proteins crystallized in space group P1, and a structure was determined by anomalous dispersion from the native S atoms. The data revealed glycosylated proteins that adopt a lipocalin fold, bind lipids and organize to form a tightly packed crystalline lattice. A single crystal is estimated to contain more than three times the energy of an equivalent mass of dairy milk. This unique storage form of nourishment for developing embryos allows access to a constant supply of complete nutrients. Notably, the crystalline cockroach-milk proteins are highly heterogeneous with respect to amino-acid sequence, glycosylation and bound fatty-acid composition. These data present a unique example of protein heterogeneity within a single in vivo-grown crystal of a natural protein in its native environment at atomic resolution.

SOURCE: https://journals.iucr.org/m/issues/2016/04/00/jt5013/

 

[JamesWhitehead]

I thought this seemed familiar.

Buried in the Strange Things as Food & Drink thread, back in 2016. kamalktk noted it. :dinner:

 

[EnolaGaia]

I thought this seemed familiar.
Buried in the Strange Things as Food & Drink thread, back in 2016. kamalktk noted it. :dinner:

Yep ... I'm still trying to determine what (if anything ... ) has happened or been updated since 2016.

 

[Kondoru]

How are you going to milk a cockroach, pray?

My mother was a convert to Royal jelly....

...Oddly, I never grew up to become a queen bee...

 

[Xanatic*]

Can we make it into cheese?

 

[Kondoru]

Now that sounds worth trying.

 

[Spookdaddy]

I'd drink it.

Although I accept that we all have different ideas about the tastiness, or otherwise, of things, I've never really understood the queasiness about where they come from. You follow that path and god knows what you'll be left with - "Potatoes grow where? You put WHAT on them?"

I'm always reminded of a Calvin and Hobbes moment, regarding a cow - something along the lines of: "I wonder who the first person was to look at one of those things and say 'I'm going to squeeze that and then drink what comes out of it'".

 

[Anonymous34905]

Here are the bibliographic particulars and abstract for the 2016 research paper that's the basis for promoting cockroach milk.

Structure of a heterogeneous, glycosylated, lipid-bound, in vivo-grown protein crystal at atomic resolution from the viviparous cockroach Diploptera punctata

Sanchari Banerjee, Nathan P. Coussens, François-Xavier Gallat, Nitish Sathyanarayanan, Jandhyam Srikanth, Koichiro J. Yagi, James S. S. Gray, Stephen S. Tobe, Barbara Stay, Leonard M. G. Chavasd,and Subramanian Ramaswamy
International Union of Crystallography Journal
Volume 3, Part 4, July 2016 Pages 282-293.

(abstract)

Macromolecular crystals for X-ray diffraction studies are typically grown in vitro from pure and homogeneous samples; however, there are examples of protein crystals that have been identified in vivo. Recent developments in micro-crystallography techniques and the advent of X-ray free-electron lasers have allowed the determination of several protein structures from crystals grown in cellulo. Here, an atomic resolution (1.2 Å) crystal structure is reported of heterogeneous milk proteins grown inside a living organism in their functional niche. These in vivo-grown crystals were isolated from the midgut of an embryo within the only known viviparous cockroach, Diploptera punctata. The milk proteins crystallized in space group P1, and a structure was determined by anomalous dispersion from the native S atoms. The data revealed glycosylated proteins that adopt a lipocalin fold, bind lipids and organize to form a tightly packed crystalline lattice. A single crystal is estimated to contain more than three times the energy of an equivalent mass of dairy milk. This unique storage form of nourishment for developing embryos allows access to a constant supply of complete nutrients. Notably, the crystalline cockroach-milk proteins are highly heterogeneous with respect to amino-acid sequence, glycosylation and bound fatty-acid composition. These data present a unique example of protein heterogeneity within a single in vivo-grown crystal of a natural protein in its native environment at atomic resolution.

SOURCE: https://journals.iucr.org/m/issues/2016/04/00/jt5013/

Might be a healthy superfood but don't think I could drink it :sorry:

 

[Frasier Buddolph]

How are you going to milk a cockroach, pray?

With a tiny stool and a wee bucket. Bus sure to rub your hands together to warm them before you start. Roaches have six legs, mind, so they can really kick!

 

[Mikefule]

How would a local authority hygiene inspection go?
"We found cockroaches in the kitchen and we're closing you down."
"But..."

We in the affluent west are inconsistent about food. "I couldn't possibly eat bugs" (but I do eat pork, lamb, eggs, blue cheese...) and even vegetarians studiously avoid thinking about how many hedgehogs are run over by carrot lorries every year. (I was veggie for 18 years and although I have left the fold, I am not anti. )

 

[maximus otter]

...a heterogeneous, glycosylated, lipid-bound, in vivo-grown protein crystal...

Sounds lush, and straight from Auntie ICI’s country kitchen...

No doubt the people who decry chlorine-sterilised chicken, and wheat genetically altered for better yields, as “Frankenstein foods” will be urging us to consume it.

l shan’t be bothering.

maximus otter

 

[maximus otter]

We in the affluent west are inconsistent about food. "I couldn't possibly eat bugs" (but I do eat pork, lamb, eggs, blue cheese...) and even vegetarians studiously avoid thinking about how many hedgehogs are run over by carrot lorries every year. (I was veggie for 18 years and although I have left the fold, I am not anti. )

lt has occurred to me that as the Venn diagram for veggieness and environmental panic shows a lot of overlap, and that “food miles” are a huge concern for some people, how much consideration have veggies given to where many of their preferred foods come from? Have l missed the UK’s huge soybean, couscous, quinoa, rice and avocado farms, for example?

maximus otter

 

[Spookdaddy]

...We in the affluent west are inconsistent about food. "I couldn't possibly eat bugs" (but I do eat pork, lamb, eggs, blue cheese...) and even vegetarians studiously avoid thinking about how many hedgehogs are run over by carrot lorries every year. (I was veggie for 18 years and although I have left the fold, I am not anti. )

I'm pretty sure that I've read somewhere that both ground and instant coffees contain a quite high bug parts content (unless it's a UL - but it kind of makes sense when you look at the process).

If so, a lot of people may have been browsing on beetle bits for years, without even knowing about it.