Chinese Scientists Develop Gene-Edited Fungus as Meat Substitute
A group of scientists from China has employed CRISPR technology to modify a type of fungus, aiming to replace chicken proteins, and it might even have a meat-like taste.
This fungus, it seems, is more cost-effective and simpler to cultivate compared to chicken, occupying less land and causing less environmental harm.
This innovative development was revealed in a recently published article titled “Double Enhancement of Mycoprotein Nutrition and Sustainability via CRISPR” focusing on fusarium venenatum, which appeared in the journal Trends in Biology on November 19th.
Fusarium venenatum is already known for its high protein content. A company named Quorn cultivates this fungus and ferments it to produce ‘mycoproteins,’ which serve as meat alternatives for vegan and vegetarian diets. Quorn claims to generate edible protein with 95% less carbon emissions than an equal weight of ground beef, describing their mycoprotein as “delicious.”
The research team in China utilized advanced CRISPR gene-editing tools to enhance fusarium venenatum, enabling it to grow faster, yield more protein, and reduce its ecological footprint. Reportedly, the modified fungus also tastes better and is easier for humans to digest.
“There is a general demand for better and more sustainable food-grade proteins. By fine-tuning the genes, we succeeded in making fungi not only more nutritious, but also more environmentally friendly,” remarked Xiao Liu from Jiangnan University in Wuxi, China, who contributed to the study.
Xiao and his team managed to avoid adding foreign DNA to the fungus. They simply removed two genes that caused thickening of its cell walls, which made digestion challenging. This adjustment surprisingly allowed the fungus to produce more protein while needing fewer nutrients.
The new strain, dubbed FCPD, reportedly consumes 44% less sugar and generates 88% more protein than the unmodified version of fusarium venenatum. The researchers estimated that scaling up FCPD production would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60% compared to the original strain and necessitate 70% less land than a poultry farm of comparable size.
According to the South China Morning Post, a study from the University of California, Davis, noted that many current initiatives to replace beef with lab-grown meat on a large scale provide minimal net environmental benefits and may sometimes be worse than traditional beef farming.
While poultry farming is generally viewed as more eco-friendly than beef production, lab-grown proteins are often assessed against chicken in terms of taste, nutrition, efficiency, and environmental repercussions.
On paper, the FCPD strain of mycoprotein seems to be one of the rare alternatives that, with adequate production, could offer significant environmental advantages over chicken farming—provided, of course, that consumers are open to trying it.
