An international team of scientists sequenced the protein in the middle bowel of cockroaches. The reason? It is more than four times more nutritious than milk and experts believe that this could be essential to feed the growing population of the future.
Although most cockroaches do not actually produce milk, Diploptera punctate - the only cockroach known to give birth to a living offspring - has shown that it pumps a type of "milk" containing protein to feed its babies.
The fact that an insect produces milk is fascinating, but what astonishes researchers is the fact that a single protein crystal contains more than three times the amount of energy found in an equivalent amount of buffalo milk - which in itself is more calmly higher than cow's milk.
It is clear that the cockroach trade is not the most feasible option, so an international team of scientists led by researchers from the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Indicative Regenerative Medicine decided to sequence the genes responsible for the production of milk protein crystals to see if they could somehow reproduce them in the lab.
"Crystals are like a complete food: they have proteins, fats and sugars. If you look at the protein sequences, they have all the essential amino acids, "says Sanchari Banerjee, head of one of the research teams.
But it is not only an important source of protein. Now that researchers have sequenced it, they have learned that when digested, the crystal releases more protein to make it a truly profitable food.