These days, when it comes to meat alternatives, most eyes are on lab-grown and plant-based products. But one of the latest breakthroughs in sustainable, cruelty-free food comes from yet another kingdom of life: fungi.
The human-fungus bond has been cementing for thousands of years, during which our ancestors found countless ways to fit these nutritious organisms into their diet. Now, putting a distinctly modern twist on the relationship, scientists at UC Berkeley reported in Nature Communications earlier this year that they had genetically engineered meat-like patties out of mold.
And not just any mold — Aspergillus oryzae, also known as Koji, has been used in East Asia since prehistoric times to ferment starches into miso, sake, soy sauce, and other products. Vayu Hill-Maini, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley and lead author of the paper, sees his work as the logical 21st-century extension of that age-old domestication campaign.
“Humans have already tinkered with the genome and come up with this amazing species,” he says. “What I want to do is to say, let's continue that evolution, but let's bring in our contemporary tools to program it.”
