Meat consumption is widely regarded as one of the more environmentally damaging choices consumers can make, largely because livestock farming places significant pressure on land, water, and energy resources while contributing substantially to greenhouse gas emissions.
Even so, meat remains a major part of diets around the world, driven by taste, cultural traditions, and the valuable nutrients and proteins it provides.
But could plants be modified to offer some of the nutritional or flavor-related qualities associated with meat?
Plants Engineered to Produce Meat-Related Protein
A new study published in Frontiers in Plant Science suggests that this may be possible. Researchers genetically modified lettuce and tobacco plants so they could produce myoglobin, an animal protein associated with meat’s color and flavor.
Groff said the study is the first to show that higher plants can consistently produce myoglobin, a protein linked to key meat qualities. She noted that the finding could support more sustainable food production.
Groff and her colleagues used the “gene gun” technique to introduce pig myoglobin genes into the chloroplasts of young lettuce and tobacco plants.
Modified Plants Successfully Pass the Myoglobin Gene to Their Offspring
After verifying that the foreign DNA had been successfully incorporated, the researchers allowed the plants to mature and produce seeds. Further testing confirmed that the inserted gene was successfully inherited by the next generation.
According to Groff, one of the most unexpected findings was how effectively the plants were able to tolerate producing myoglobin.
Despite binding heme, myoglobin did not affect the plants’ health or fertility. The researchers also found that producing myoglobin did not cause any significant disruption to their ability to carry out photosynthesis.
The researchers found that the method produced around 810 milligrams of myoglobin per kilogram of dry weight in lettuce and approximately 800 milligrams per kilogram in tobacco plants.
Although levels are lower than in animal muscle, growing plants could offer significant environmental benefits.
Plant-Based Myoglobin Could Offer a More Sustainable Alternative
According to the researchers, animal muscle contains roughly 10 times more myoglobin than the modified plants. However, plant cultivation generally requires far fewer resources than livestock farming. Plant-produced myoglobin could provide similar or higher protein yields per hectare while using less water and producing fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
The researchers note that additional studies are necessary to accurately determine how plant-based myoglobin production compares with conventional livestock farming.
Myoglobin could eventually be extracted from plant leaves for use in plant-based meat products. Another possibility would be to consume or cook the genetically modified lettuce directly as a fresh food ingredient.
Researchers Aim to Improve Protein Yields in Future Plant-Based Production
Further improvements to the technique could also make plant-based production more competitive. The research is still a proof of concept, and more work is needed to increase myoglobin and other useful protein yields.
Groff explained that the researchers confirmed the protein adopts the correct structure, but not all of it successfully incorporates heme. This finding provides a clear target for improving future versions of the engineered plants.
Because the results indicate that limited heme availability may be restricting myoglobin production, future research could focus on modifying the plant’s heme-producing pathway and related metabolic processes to increase the amount of fully functional myoglobin.
The team plans to explore other valuable proteins, using chloroplasts as a sustainable plant-based production platform.
Read the original article on: sciencealert
