06 Innovation from Food to Materials

The global fungal biotech market has reached tens of billions of dollars and is expected to grow at a rate of 8-10% per year in the next five years.This field not only creates a large number of jobs from farms to laboratories, but also provides new paths to economic growth for developing countries.The carbon-negative or carbon-neutral properties of fungi-based products make them a sustainable choice for alternative fossil products with great environmental and economic benefits.

Mushroom cultivation has developed into a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide, with major varieties including Agaricus bisporus, oyster mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms and enoki mushrooms.Modern cultivation techniques rely on controlled environments, precise matrix formulations and efficient production systems.

A mushroom farm I visited in Pennsylvania uses vertical farming techniques, tripling the yield in a fully controlled environment.They achieved an endless production cycle throughout the year by accurately controlling temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide concentration.

Fungi have a long history and a wide range of applications in fermented foods.Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is used for bread, beer, wine and bioethanol production; mold is involved in the production of cheese (blue, Carmenberg), soy sauce, miso, tempeh and fermented tofu.

Fermentation is essentially the process by which fungi breaks complex organic matter into simpler, more digestible compounds.For example, in bread making, yeast converts sugars into carbon dioxide and ethanol, which expands the dough and produces a unique flavor.

Food additives produced by fungi are everywhere in daily life:

Paying attention to these ingredients when reading food labels can help you understand the extent to which fungal technology is used in processed foods.

Mycelial proteins (such as Quorn brand products) are made by fermenter cultured fungal myceliums, with high protein content and meat-like textures, and have become an important product in the vegetarian and vegan markets.

My experience in raising oyster mushroom mycelium in the lab to make plant-based meat shows that controlling glucose concentration and dissolved oxygen levels is essential to obtaining an ideal texture.The optimal conditions are: glucose concentration is 20g/L, and dissolved oxygen remains at 30-40%.

Fungi are the main source of industrial enzymes, and strains such as Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus oryzae and Trichoderma reesei are widely used.The global industrial enzyme market is worth more than US$6 billion, of which fungal enzymes account for about 45%.

Degraded cellulose is a fermentable sugar and is used in biofuels (cellulose ethanol), animal feed, pulp and detergent industries.This technology increases the value of agricultural waste (such as straw) by 3-5 times.

Includes laccase and peroxidase for pulp bleaching (reducing chlorine by up to 70%), bioremediation, textile and biofuel pretreatment.White rot fungi show special expertise in this regard.

Convert starch into sugars and is used in baking, high fructose syrup, winemaking and detergent industries.

Hydrolyzed proteins for use in detergents, food processing (food tender meat, cheese) and leather industries.

Decompose fat and used in detergent, food and biodiesel production.

Commercial products containing cellulase can be added during household composting to accelerate the decomposition of cellulose materials by 30-50%.

Compared with chemical catalysts, fungal enzymes have the advantages of efficient production, high specificity, environmentally friendly, and renewable.Modern fermentation technology has reduced the cost of enzyme production by more than 60% over the past decade.

The discovery of penicillin (from Penicillium) changed the medical history, and fungal source antibiotics such as cephalosporin (from apex cephalosporin) further expanded our arsenal of anti-infection.

Fungi need to compete with bacteria in their natural environment, thus evolving powerful antibacterial compounds.The discovery of these compounds usually involves large-scale screening programs, with an average of 10,000 fungal strains screened to discover a new potential antibiotic.

Fungal metabolites such as cyclosporine A (from soil fungi) and tacrolimus make organ transplantation a routine medical procedure, greatly reducing the risk of rejection.

Statins such as lovastatin, originally found in Red Quotes and Penicillium, are now one of the best-selling drug categories in the world, preventing millions of cardiovascular events each year.

Paclitaxel was initially isolated from Pacific yew and later it was discovered that certain endophytic fungi could also produce this important anti-cancer drug, which provided the possibility of sustainable production.

Yeast expression systems are used to produce recombinant proteins, such as hepatitis B vaccine.The advantage of fungi as a production platform is their eukaryotic properties and their ability to perform complex post-translation modifications.

Medicinal fungal extracts such as Ganoderma lucidum, Cordyceps sinensis, and Maijing constitute a huge market for health care products.When choosing these products, you should look for third-party certifications to ensure quality and purity.

When purchasing medicinal mushroom supplements, check the beta-glucan content on the label, which is one of the key indicators to measure product quality.

By culturing mycelium on agricultural waste, a variety of solid materials can be produced, which is one of the most innovative fungal applications.

My experience in developing mycelial packaging materials with Ecovative has shown that choosing the right agricultural waste matrix has a huge impact on the performance of the final product.Rice husks provide higher hardness, while wood chips produce more flexible materials.

Mycelial materials are characterized by sustainability, negative carbon emissions, rapid growth (5-10-day molding) and molding.

Simplified steps for home making mycelial material:

1. Choose a matrix (coffee grounds, straw or wood chips)

2. Sterilization treatment (steam or autoclave)

3. Inoculate edible fungi

4. Cultivate at appropriate temperature and humidity for 5-7 days

5. Hot pressing and drying

Fungal polysaccharide-based bioplastics are degradable alternatives to traditional plastics, which can be decomposed in natural environments from several months to two years, much faster than the hundreds of years of traditional plastics.

White rot fungi can decompose a variety of pollutants, including petroleum hydrocarbons (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), pesticides, herbicides, industrial dyes, and even certain plastics and chemical pollutants.

At a contaminated industrial site in Minnesota, we used white rot fungi to treat PAHs in soil, and pollutant concentrations decreased by 85% in six months.

Certain mushroom species can accumulate heavy metals and can act as biosorbents to clean contaminated soil and water.By harvesting these mushrooms, it is effective to remove heavy metals from the environment.

Edible mushrooms collected in contaminated areas may contain dangerous levels of heavy metals and must be tested in laboratory before they can be eaten.

Research after the Chernobyl accident found that certain fungi have radiation resistance and can absorb radionuclides, which provides new ideas for nuclear pollution control.

Fungi can degrade organic pollutants and have significant application effects in biological filters.Compared with bacterial systems, fungal systems have better treatment effects on certain difficult-to-degrade contaminants.

Commercial mycorrhizal inoculum can significantly improve plant growth and is widely used in forestry, agriculture and horticulture, which can improve plant survival rate by 20-40% and enhance stress resistance.

Fungi break down organic matter and release nutrients, and composting inoculation of specific fungi can speed up the decomposition process and improve fertilizer quality.

Insect pathogenic fungi (such as leukobassia and leukobassia) are effective alternatives to chemical pesticides, with strong targeted and environmentally friendly characteristics.

When using whitefly leukoprotein to prevent and treat whiteflies and aphids, it should be applied in the early morning or evening to avoid strong ultraviolet rays to reduce spore vitality.

Research in this field is developing rapidly when certain endophytic fungi can stimulate plant growth and enhance resistance.

Agricultural straw and animal manure can be used as mushroom cultivation substrates to improve the value and recycling of agricultural waste.

Fungal enzymes play a key role in biofuel production:

The main challenge at present is cost competitiveness, but with technological advancement, fungal biofuels are expected to achieve cost parity with fossil fuels within 5-10 years.

Yeast and filamentous fungi are excellent platforms for the expression of exogenous proteins and are used to produce industrial enzymes, drug proteins and vaccines.Its advantages include the post-translational modification ability of the eukaryotic system and the convenience of secretion into the culture medium.

Gene editing technology makes fungal engineering more accurate and can be used to increase yields, discover new compounds and optimize traits.Synthetic biological approaches allow the design of entirely new metabolic pathways.

Solid fermentation (traditionally used in products such as soy sauce) and liquid fermentation (large-scale production of enzymes and compounds) have their own advantages.Optimizing culture media, conditions, and strains is key to improving yields.

In laboratory-scale fermentation, dissolved oxygen control is one of the most critical parameters, and the impact on the yield of secondary metabolites can reach more than 300%.

Experimental research shows that mycelium network has information processing capabilities, which may open up new avenues for the development of biological computers.

The response of fungi to pollutants and toxins can be developed as a biological detection tool that is inexpensive and highly sensitive.

Mycelial sculpture, furniture and fashion are becoming an important part of the sustainable design movement.

The International Space Station has successfully conducted mushroom cultivation experiments, and mycelium materials are also considered for feasibility studies of future Martian architecture.

The fungi industry is widely used, covering almost all industrial fields, from food to materials to medicine.Enzyme production, bioremediation and mycelial materials are the fastest growing areas with significant sustainability and environmental advantages.Technological advances and synthetic biology are opening up unprecedented possibilities, with huge economic and environmental benefits.From ancient fermentation technologies to cutting-edge biotechnology, fungi have proven to be an indispensable and valuable partner on the path of sustainable development of human beings.

Whether you are an entrepreneur, researcher, enthusiast or average consumer, now is the best time to participate in the fungal bioeconomy.This field not only provides business opportunities, but also provides practical solutions for the sustainable development of our planet.