October 11, 2023, by pczmj
Fungi alternate options may diversify sustainable sources of protein to feed the world
This put up is by Professor Paul Dyer, Professor of Fungal Biology on the College of Nottingham.
Our meals system feeds 8 billion folks every day, however this comes at ever growing environmental prices when it comes to land, water, greenhouse fuel emissions, and biodiversity loss. With the rising world inhabitants and hovering demand for protein, there’s a clear want for complementary sources of proteins apart from meat. Numerous different (‘alt.’) sources have been urged corresponding to plant-based foodstuffs, so-called ‘single-cell’ proteins from microorganisms grown in fermenters, cultivated meat grown from cells, and even bugs. Right here, we argue for the advantages of microorganisms for manufacturing of alt. proteins, and think about some challenges and future views.
There are a number of established methods for the manufacturing of other proteins through progress of microorganisms, notably fungi. This could contain progress and harvest of the entire fungal mycelium to supply ‘mycoprotein’, corresponding to in manufacturing of Quorn, a meat substitute bought globally. In parallel, fungi can be utilized to ferment substrates to transform them into extra nutritionally wealthy merchandise (e.g. protein content material and flavour), corresponding to using Tempeh manufacturing in Asian nations. It may be argued that the fungal kingdom (each filamentous fungi and yeasts) is a perfect goal for alt. protein manufacturing primarily based on their traits. For one, there’s a longtime observe file of profitable and industrial protein manufacturing from fungi (e.g. Quorn and Pekilo) and protein-rich foodstuffs (e.g. Tempeh). Fungi may also be cultivated comparatively simply, and plenty of species are suited to progress in fermenters utilizing native worldwide feedstocks. Along with that, many species present extremely environment friendly substrate conversion to protein, with a excessive protein product with different advantages corresponding to dietary roughage. Lastly, novel and improved fungal strains could be generated comparatively quickly utilizing classical and gene modifying approaches, with many protocols described.
Nonetheless, there are challenges. The general protein content material of such fungal meals is decrease than present in meat. There are additionally manufacturing obstacles, corresponding to the necessity to use highly-purified and dear progress supplies to keep away from the induction of mycotoxins, and the issue of evolution of branching mutants in long-term fermentations disrupting the fibre-like construction. As well as, enzyme exercise of manufacturing strains will not be appropriate for utilisation of sure substrates.
However there are promising future prospects. There are already typical strategies to permit pressure enchancment of present fungal sources in order that they’ll turn out to be extra commercially viable and of even better dietary worth. In parallel the fungal kingdom is estimated to include over 2 million species, of which we’ve got solely checked out a really small fraction. Due to this fact there’s nice untapped potential for the ‘subsequent technology’ of fungal mycoprotein species. Lastly, latest advances in strategies corresponding to gene modifying, high-throughput screening, AI and machine studying provide the chance to achieve necessary analysis insights and supply thrilling alternatives for even higher use of fungi as protein sources sooner or later. That is important as microbially derived proteins are way more environmentally sustainable than animal-derived proteins and provide a long-term answer for rising populations worldwide.
Additional studying/listening:
Szepe KJ, Dyer PS, Johnson RI, Salter AM, Avery SV (2021). Affect of environmental and genetic components on meals protein high quality: present information and future instructions. Present Opinion in Meals Science 40: 94-101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cofs.2021.02.005
Lymbery P (2015). Farmageddon: The True Value of Low-cost Meat. Bloomsbury, UK.
Podcast on Fermented Meals: https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/quorn-fermented-filamentous-fungi-we-can-eat
