Scientists Engineer Super-Efficient Fungal Protein That Outperforms Meat — and Could Change the Future of Food
The future of protein might not moo, cluck, or oink… it may actually ferment quietly inside a giant metal tank. In a remarkable development, scientists in China have engineered a fungal organism that produces protein far more efficiently than conventional livestock, while dramatically reducing environmental impact. And unlike many futuristic food technologies still waiting for real-world validation, this breakthrough has already been tested at industrial scale.
The work was carried out by researchers at Jiangnan University, who used CRISPR gene editing to upgrade Fusarium venenatum, the same fungus behind existing commercial mycoprotein products. This humble species was first discovered in the 1960s and has long been explored as a promising meat alternative. But while its potential has always been there, its performance has remained limited by biology — until now.
The newly engineered strain consumes 44% less glucose per kilogram of protein produced, while nearly doubling protein output compared to unmodified versions. When stacked up against chicken production and even lab-grown meat, the improved mycoprotein shows clear environmental advantages in terms of land use, water consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions.
As co-author Xiao Liu of Jiangnan University put it in a press statement:
“There is a popular demand for better and more sustainable protein for food. We successfully made a fungus not only more nutritious but also more environmentally friendly by tweaking its genes.”
The results, published in Trends in Biotechnology, demonstrate successful production not just in the lab but at 5,000-liter industrial fermentation volumes, a key milestone in proving that this technology could scale into a functioning food industry, not just a science-fiction concept.
How Mushrooms Make ‘Meat’
Producing fungal protein works differently from farming animals. Instead of fields and feedlots, mycoprotein is grown in tall industrial tanks filled with sugar-based feedstock and nutrients such as ammonium sulfate. Spores grow into dense fungal biomass, which is collected and processed into products that resemble meat in texture, nutrition, and cooking flexibility.
But until now, Fusarium venenatum in its natural state has had two major weaknesses:
- Thick cell walls containing chitin, a durable natural polymer that’s great for fungal survival, but makes the protein less digestible for humans.
- A metabolic tendency to waste energy producing carbon dioxide instead of channeling nutrients into protein.
The engineering team targeted the genes responsible for both of these issues.
Tackling Chitin: Better Nutrition and Happier Stomachs
The first breakthrough focused on reducing chitin production in the fungal cell walls. Chitin is also found in the exoskeletons of insects and crustaceans and in the cell walls of magic mushrooms and truffles. It’s actually one of the reasons some people get an upset stomach or nausea when consuming psychedelic mushrooms, especially raw or whole. Luckily, this is why brewing magic mushrooms or truffles into tea can help: hot water reduces the amount of chitin consumed, making the experience easier on digestion.
In this study, the scientists decreased chitin levels by 29%, making the fungal biomass easier for the human body to break down and absorb. This genetic change unlocked some major nutritional upgrades, too.
Rewiring the Fungus for More Protein, Less CO₂
Next, the researchers altered the fungus’s metabolic pathway to redirect its biological energy away from producing excess carbon dioxide and toward synthesizing protein. That tweak paid off in a big way.
The improved strain showed:
- A 33% boost in essential amino acid index, a key measure of protein quality
- Better digestibility, increasing from 52.65% to 56.66%
- A final protein content of 52.2% (dry weight) — similar to many cuts of meat
Molecular analysis revealed that the gene edits fundamentally rewired six major biochemical pathways involved in amino acid synthesis and carbon metabolism. In other words, the fungus is now better optimized for the job humans want it to do: produce high-quality, highly efficient protein.
A Clean Regulatory Pathway
One detail regulators love: the modifications are “scarless,” meaning no foreign DNA remains in the final organism. This is not the same as traditional GMO insertion and typically faces lighter regulatory hurdles: especially in the United States, where such alterations fall into clearer legal territory.
Real-World Impact: Cleaner Than Chicken and Many Plants
The researchers also conducted a comprehensive life-cycle analysis across eight global production scenarios, taking into account differences in national energy grids and agricultural practices. Across all cases, the gene-edited mycoprotein showed 4–61% reductions in global warming potential compared to unmodified strains, with the biggest gains in countries using cleaner renewable electricity.
When compared to conventional chicken meat, the engineered fungal protein outperformed across multiple environmental categories, including:
- Greenhouse gas emissions
- Land requirements
- Stratospheric ozone depletion
- Freshwater eutrophication
One major reason for its edge? Efficiency. The upgraded mushroom-like organism is 2.24 times more efficient at converting feedstock (primarily glucose) into protein. That matters because glucose usually comes from corn or similar crops that contribute heavily to environmental impact. If the fungus needs less glucose, the agricultural footprint shrinks dramatically.
Even better, the engineered strain produced:
- 26.85 kg of biomass per hour at industrial scale
- Compared to 14.25 kg per hour from conventional strains
- Using 44% less glucose overall
In terms of pure economics and scalability, that is extremely promising.
Not Perfect Yet… But Moving Fast
There are, of course, caveats. Mycoprotein does not yet beat many plant-based proteins (such as pea protein) when environmental impact is fully modeled. Fermentation requires significant energy inputs, which means its footprint depends heavily on a nation’s electricity mix. Some countries will be cleaner than others.
And glucose production itself varies in environmental cost depending on local agriculture. For example, some places can grow corn more efficiently than others.
The ultimate question is: can this technology scale quickly enough to meaningfully offset rising global demand for meat, especially in rapidly developing economies where protein consumption is increasing at break-neck speed?
Xiao Liu believes the answer could be yes:
“Gene-edited foods like this can meet growing food demands without the environmental costs of conventional farming.”
A Mushroom-Powered Future?
With industrial-scale testing completed, higher nutritional quality achieved, and dramatic environmental gains demonstrated, this gene-edited fungal protein may represent one of the most realistic paths toward sustainable protein the world has seen yet.
It’s not a replacement for every dietary need — not yet — but it shows what’s possible when biotechnology, sustainability, and food science come together. And in a world hungry for solutions, that’s worth paying attention to.
