Gene-edited fungus could transform sustainable protein production

Scientists have engineered a fungus that turns the same amount of feedstock into significantly more edible protein – and does so with far fewer emissions.

In new research from Jiangnan University in Wuxi, China, a gene-edited strain of Fusarium venenatum produced richer, more digestible protein while trimming the greenhouse gases normally released during fermentation.

The advance arrives as food systems search for lower-carbon ways to feed a growing population.

Animal agriculture alone generates roughly 14.5 percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations. Even plant-based alternatives carry environmental costs when they’re grown or processed inefficiently.

Fungi’s big food moment

Mycoprotein, a protein-rich food made from filamentous fungi, offers a way to grow protein without raising animals.

One species, called Fusarium venenatum, already appears in supermarket meat alternatives because its strands cook and chew in a meat-like way.

In its natural form, Fusarium venenatum has a tough cell wall, a rigid outer covering that keeps much of its protein locked away.

Thick walls limit digestibility for people and force processors to use more steps to pull nutrients out of the fungal fibers. Instead of fields, producers grow this fungus in large steel tanks filled with sugar and mineral-rich broth.

Those inputs are costly, and when the fungus does not convert them efficiently into biomass, the climate benefits of microbial protein shrink.

Gene edits supercharge fungi

To improve efficiency, the team turned to CRISPR, a gene-editing tool that cuts DNA at chosen locations. By deleting select genes, they created a new strain of Fusarium venenatum (FCPD).

One targeted gene helped build chitin synthase, an enzyme that contributes to the strong structural material in fungal cell walls.

Removing this gene thinned the walls, making more of the protein inside accessible to human digestive enzymes in the gut.

Another gene produced pyruvate decarboxylase, an enzyme that normally routes carbon into alcohol production instead of into amino acids and protein.

When that gene was removed, more carbon flowed through metabolic pathways, the linked reaction chains inside cells that support protein and essential amino acid synthesis.

In the fermenter, the new fungi protein achieved a 32.9 percent higher essential amino acid index, a score describing essential amino acid balance, than the original strain.

Testing climate gains at scale

To understand the environmental impact, the team ran a detailed life cycle assessment, a method that tracks inputs and emissions from start to finish.

The researchers modeled an industrial plant producing one million kilograms of FCPD mycoprotein in countries with coal-heavy or renewable-heavy power grids.

In those scenarios, the new strain cut total climate impact by up to about 61 percent compared with the original Fusarium venenatum process.

Even in grids that rely heavily on coal, the improved strain stayed ahead of the old one on every measured environmental indicator.

More sustainable fungal protein

Independent review work on existing mycoprotein products finds greenhouse gas impacts similar to chicken and pork, with better land and water efficiency.

The results suggest that improving fermentation efficiency further, as FCPD does, can push fungal protein even lower on the footprint league table.

Earlier studies from the same group used cell wall engineering in Fusarium venenatum to boost protein content and digestibility.

That work showed protein content rose substantially while chitin levels fell, confirming that wall composition strongly controls the nutritional yield of each batch.

Boosting nutrition, cutting impact

Other experiments applying high-pressure homogenization, a process that blasts material through narrow gaps at high pressure, to Fusarium mycoprotein increased protein content and digestibility, and even outperformed soy protein in some tests.

Together, these findings indicate that both genetic edits and physical processing can work hand in hand to make fungal proteins easier to absorb.

Modeling showed FCPD mycoprotein used 70 percent less land than chicken in China and cut freshwater pollution risk by 78 percent.

The same scenarios indicated lower overall climate impact for FCPD than for both conventional chicken farming and cell cultured meat production.

Early modeling of cultivated meat, meat grown from animal cells in bioreactors, suggested big cuts in land and water use compared with beef and pork.

Cleaner power boosts fungi protein

Later work has stressed that climate benefit depends on clean electricity, so fungal protein that performs well on current grids has an advantage.

“A lot of people thought growing mycoprotein was more sustainable,” said Xiaohui Wu of Jiangnan University, noting that few had studied the full process.

That comment captures why the group looked beyond the microbes themselves and into the factories, energy sources, and farm systems around them.

What comes next

In this project, the edits are scarless, meaning no extra genes from other species were inserted into the fungal genome.

That approach aligns with other gene-edited foods already on the market, where tiny DNA changes tweak traits without introducing entirely new proteins.

Regulators will still expect extensive safety checks, including allergen testing and nutritional assessment, before any FCPD-based ingredient reaches dinner plates.

“Gene-edited foods like this can meet growing food demands without the environmental costs of conventional farming,” said Xiao Liu, a food engineer at the Science Center for Future Foods at Jiangnan University.

Protein from fungi on your menu

If companies scale up FCPD production and keep costs under control, the resulting protein could appear in burgers, nuggets, or noodle dishes.

Such foods would still need to taste good, cook predictably, and fit cultural preferences across very different food traditions.

For consumers, the biggest questions center on how companies label the product and whether shoppers feel comfortable with gene editing in everyday groceries.

Clear safety reviews, transparent communication, and trusted brands will matter as much as lab advances when people decide what to put on their plates.

The study is published in the journal Trends in Biotechnology.

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