CRISPR fungus: Protein-packed, sustainable, and tastes like meat

A key limiting factor for dietary use of single cell protein is the high mass fraction of nucleic acid, which limits daily consumption due to uric acid production during metabolism. High rates of RNA synthesis are unfortunately necessary for high protein productivity.

The paper notes:

>It is important to note that MP products often contain elevated levels of nucleic acids, constituting ~8% of the dry weight [17], which necessitates consideration when assessing their suitability for human consumption. To address this, a heat treatment process is employed at the end of fermentation that reduces the nucleic acid content in the fermented biomass to below 0.75/100 g, while simultaneously deactivating protease activity and F. venenatum biomass. However, this procedure has been observed to induce cell membrane leakage and a substantial loss of biomass, as evidenced in the Quorn production process [17], which also utilizes F. venenatum as the MP producer. Our experimental trials have encountered similar challenges, achieving a biomass yield of merely ~35%, and observed that heating process increased the relative protein and chitin content (Figure 2D,E), which may be related to the effect of membrane leakage, while the intracellular protein of the FCPD engineered strain was less likely to be lost to the extracellular. Thus, concentrating the fermentation broth to enhance protein and amino acids content in successive steps to produce a highly nutritious water-soluble fertilizer appears to be an effective strategy for adding value to the process (Figure 1).

The challenges of developing economic single cell protein products, that are suitable for human consumption, are described in chapter 3 here:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martin-Hofrichter-2/pub...

While the paper is behind a pay wall, the abstract highlights that they used knock out gene editing, meaning this is not a GMO of the old days, with trans genes, but a mkdifcation one could have achieved with classical breeding if given enough time and resources.

If I understand this right, this would even in the EU now be allowed to be sold without the GMO label.

They've altered Fusarium venenatum which is currently what Quorn utilizes in its products. "The production process of gene-edited MP is more environmentally friendly than chicken meat and cell-cultured meat." That's good news, if they get to the point where it is more economically friendly than chicken meat it will be great news.

I had vaguely remembered that chitin was equivalent to cellulose in our inability to digest. The article addresses it:

"The first modification, eliminating a gene for chitin synthase, resulted in thinner fungal cell walls."

This also has an enormous potential benefit of reducing avian flu and other zoonotic bird diseases.

The paper linked in the article: https://www.cell.com/trends/biotechnology/abstract/S0167-779...

Classic belter fare

When I hear the word fungus, I think of "The Last of US" ;(

meet tastes great and all, but I wonder where science is at (if at all) on making original food that tastes good. How about food that doesn't taste like any natural food we've had, but still tastes really good?

Jell-o (gello?) is a good example, nothing tastes like it naturally. Why aren't there tasty food that are original in terms of taste and texture but good for health and the environment? I suppose part of the struggle is that food is entrenched into culture so much. burgers and bbq are inextricable from july 4th and memorial day for example.

If the goal is reduced CO2, wouldn’t it be better to take aim at plants, rather than fungi?

For chickens you do not have to pay license fees for the CRISPR technology.

This is a huge disadvantage. Not every farmer is a biological research institute.

"Pleasant taste; some monsterism."

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