There is a new entry among the candidates for the food of the future: it is a hamburger made of mushrooms with modified DNA, making it rich in iron and antioxidants and with the same color as red meat.
The result, published in the journal Nature Communications, is due to a group of researchers led by the University of California at Berkeley, who managed to use Crispr-Cas9, the DNA cut-and-sew technique, to intervene on the fungus' genome Aspergillus oryzae: this is an important step forward in the field of synthetic biology, since fungal DNA has characteristics that make genome editing a challenge.
The next step will also be to modify the structure of the fibers and increase the fat content, to obtain a more appetizing burger similar to the original.
Researchers led by Vayu Maini Rekdal dedicated their attention to the mushroom Aspergillus oryzae, used for centuries in East Asian cuisine as a fermentant to obtain, for example, sake and soy sauce.
Once the Crispr technique was adapted to the mushroom's DNA, the authors of the study managed to increase the production of the heme group, a molecule that contains iron and which is found, among other things, in the red blood cells, where it has the task to bind and transport oxygen.
A heme group of plant origin is also the basis of the well-known 'Impossible Burger', the entirely plant-based burger from the US start-up Impossible Foods.
Next, the researchers also enhanced the production of ergothioneine, an antioxidant found only in mushrooms and associated with cardiovascular health benefits.
Thanks to these modifications, the originally white mushroom turned red and was shaped into a very tempting looking burger.
“I think it's an important aspect that we don't need to introduce genes from different species,” comments Maini Rekdal: “We're simply unlocking things that are already there.”
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