A discovery this summer by two FSU researchers may some day drop the price on Americans’ favorite vitamin supplement.

Drs. Michael Blaber and Sumit Khurana, with the Institute of Molecular Biophysics, reported that they had figured out the molecular structure of an important enzyme used by bacteria to make commercial-grade vitamin C. The discovery has potential for drastically shortening the manufacturing process.

Blaber says that vitamin C today is generally made through one of two processes, either a six-step method dating to the 1930s, or a version developed by the Japanese in the 1980s. The newer method involves only two steps, using two different strains of bacteria. The first converts a raw material--D-glucose, a simple sugar--into another compound, which the second bacterium converts directly into vitamin C. Blaber and Khurana solved the molecular configuration of the enzyme which the second bacterium uses in the process.

Now that they know how the enzyme is atomically configured, the researchers see the possibilities for artificially re-engineering its DNA to make the enzyme more efficient. This done, the plan is to insert this altered DNA into the genetic make-up of the first bacteria in the process. If all goes well, the first bacteria would then have all the genetic power it needs to convert the raw material directly into vitamin C, thus eliminating the second step entirely.

The quest, part of a larger genetic engineering project the FSU scientists have with colleagues at universities in New Jersey and California, is a long shot, but one that could well be worth it for the vitamin C industry and its millions of customers.