Aussie scientists jokingly said they used the gene editing technique called CRISPR-Cas9 to splice genes used to season the traditional Sunday roast, garlic and rosemary, into early-stage sheep embryos to create delicious, pre-flavored lamb.

CRISPR-Cas9 is a legitimate gene editing technique, which was used by Chinese scientists in April 2015 to edit a human embryo.

"It`s frighteningly hard to check" if the science pranks are real or not, University of New South Wales, deputy vice chancellor and professor of molecular genetics, Merlin Crossley told Xinhua on Friday.

"There`s been some interesting work actually on strawberry flavor (but) it`s taken a long time to work this sort of thing out."

Sadly for those meat lovers out there, splicing plant genes into animals probably is unlikely to work as the plant DNA would likely not function in an alien environment. Having said that, a jelly-fish glow-in-the-dark gene has been inserted into plants and other animals to create a fluorescent glow.

"You really can put (the gene) into a mouse and the mouse glows in the dark," Crossley said.

However with garlic or rosemary flavor, Crossley is uncertain how many genes, or what sort of mixture you would need to splice.

But, the Australian Royal Botanic Gardens on Friday teamed up with Fairfax Media to report they have mixed the DNA from a coffee plant and a Shiraz grape vine to produce a hybrid that could see vine culture be replaced by coffee production due to climate change.

It`s theorized as the temperate climates of Australian mainland wine regions become too hot to sustain grape varieties, these areas would open up to coffee production once the "coffee vine" matures to produce its first beans.

The change would be beneficial for bespoke coffee drinkers, which have been increasing in recent years, but also farmers themselves who wouldn`t have to replace costly machinery already used in mechanized vine harvesting.

Crossley said the benefit of using science in April Fools Day pranks shows that while one needs to be "ever vigilant" from the hoaxes and stories that are simply wrong, there are others, like the Botanic Gardens story that look like they`re impossible, but could actually be right.

"It`s an amazing technology and it`s great that people are dreaming all the possible uses for it," Crossley said.

Aussie genetics are actually using CRISPR-Cas9 to understand human blood diseases to try and engineer beneficial mutations.

However, like any new technology, there are concerns about unintended consequences.

"You wouldn`t want to alter someone`s DNA and find out it was actually doing them harm," Crossley said.

"Like most medicines, if used properly, you can use it for good... but if you do the wrong thing, it an be harmful."

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