Lysine (a basic question)

[Danijel Gorupec]

Once upon, on this internet thingy, I read an article that examined how much we can decrease our land usage if we stop farming animals and start obtaining all our food only from plant farming. They claimed that the needed lysine (an essential amino acid) production is the limiting factor on how low land area we must use (because high-yield crops, grains specifically, are lysine limited).

So I am wondering about the most basic question - is there any domesticated animal that can actually synthesize lysine? I see pigs and chickens are given lysine supplementation for better growth, so obviously pigs and chicken can not. Can any animal at all synthesize lysine or is this ability only reserved for plants, bacteria, fungi?

Also, I see lysine is massively produced by bacterial fermentation from sugar.  This seems good enough, but I was wondering if the molecule can be synthesized in an industrial process without any biological agent (well, the molecule does not seem that complex to me)?

 

 

[exchemist]

2 hours ago, Danijel Gorupec said:

Once upon, on this internet thingy, I read an article that examined how much we can decrease our land usage if we stop farming animals and start obtaining all our food only from plant farming. They claimed that the needed lysine (an essential amino acid) production is the limiting factor on how low land area we must use (because high-yield crops, grains specifically, are lysine limited).

So I am wondering about the most basic question - is there any domesticated animal that can actually synthesize lysine? I see pigs and chickens are given lysine supplementation for better growth, so obviously pigs and chicken can not. Can any animal at all synthesize lysine or is this ability only reserved for plants, bacteria, fungi?

Also, I see lysine is massively produced by bacterial fermentation from sugar.  This seems good enough, but I was wondering if the molecule can be synthesized in an industrial process without any biological agent (well, the molecule does not seem that complex to me)?

 

 

But surely legumes can provide ample lysine in a vegetarian diet, can't they? And they also fix nitrogen, reducing the need for chemical fertilisers when grown in rotation with other crops. 

I don't know whether any domestic animals can synthesise lysine, but since their flesh contains plenty anyway, I'm not sure how a lysine-synthesing animal would help. Unless you are perhaps suggesting that the land area they require is determined by their requirement for lysine. Is that what you are getting at?  

[Peterkin]

6 hours ago, Danijel Gorupec said:

I see pigs and chickens are given lysine supplementation for better growth,

In that case, why not give people the supplement instead, bypassing the pig and chicken slaughter?

6 hours ago, Danijel Gorupec said:

Also, I see lysine is massively produced by bacterial fermentation from sugar.  This seems good enough, but I was wondering if the molecule can be synthesized in an industrial process without any biological agent

What for? If bacteria can do it fast and cheaply on a large enough scale, why implement a more expensive and complicated procedure?

[TheVat]

Legumes, soy, and spirulina all have plenty of lysine.  Land is not a limiting factor at all.  Any assertion that it is needs some cited reference.  

[Peterkin]

All we have to do is give up carnivorous companion animals, and we don't need food animals at all.

[Danijel Gorupec]

I actually wanted to know if there is any domestic animal, or any animal at all, that can synthesize lysine.

There is a chapter on the Wikipedia about biosynthesis of lysine, which I cannot understand. It seems that the biosynthesis differs somewhat with (life) kingdom. I cannot conclude anything about the animal kingdom.

May there be any truth to the claim that lysine production actually limits how small land area we need for our sustenance?

 

 

 

[Peterkin]

2 hours ago, Danijel Gorupec said:

I actually wanted to know if there is any domestic animal, or any animal at all, that can synthesize lysine.

No animals synthesize lysine. They all get in their diet, from various plant sources, but the enzyme activity is similar in all species. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1165958/

 

2 hours ago, Danijel Gorupec said:

May there be any truth to the claim that lysine production actually limits how small land area we need for our sustenance?

I don't see why. It's a question of farming style. Industrial-scale farming methods require vast acreage and flat land. Vertical, container, indoor, forest, terraced and other kinds of farming arrangements produce more food in less space, and incidentally require less transporting of food. One example is a food forest.