Unlocking the magic in mycelium: Using synthetic biology to optimize filamentous fungi for biomanufacturing and sustainability

Jo, Charles; Zhang, Jing; Tam, Jenny M.; Church, George M.; Khalil, Ahmad S.; Segrè, Daniel; Tang, Tzu‐Chieh

doi:10.1016/j.mtbio.2023.100560

Cited by 26 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 327 publications

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“…In synthetic biology, we need to ask: which building blocks do we need and how can we best find them? Bioinformatics tools such as PartCrafter [131] and other metagenomics approaches [148] can aid in discovering biological parts from novel sources, such as phage [84] or fungi [72] genomes. Others have used dictionary learning methods to identify reusable building blocks from biological systems [102] (e.g., sets of genes useful in metabolic engineering).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Open-endedness in synthetic biology: a route to continual innovation for biological design

Stock¹,

Gorochowski²

2023

Preprint

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Design in synthetic biology is typically goal-oriented: aiming to repurpose and optimize existing biological functions for new contexts, augmenting biology with new-to-nature capabilities, or creating life-like systems from scratch. While the field has seen many advances over the past two decades, bottlenecks in the complexity of the systems built are emerging and designs that function in the lab often fail when used in real-world contexts. Here, we propose an open-ended approach to biological design that aims to continuously generate innovative solutions capable of overcoming such hurdles. The fundamental principle we put forward is that the novelty of designed biology, be it a protein, genetic construct or organism, is at least as important as how well it fulfils its goal. Designing with novelty in mind, rather than a sole focus on optimization towards a single ``best'' design, may allow us to move beyond the diminishing returns we see in performance for most engineered biology to date. Research from the artificial life and evolutionary computing communities has demonstrated that embracing novelty can allow for the automatic generation of innovative and surprising solutions to challenging problems that move us beyond local optima. Synthetic biology now offers the ideal playground to test these ideas in living systems and explore more creative approaches to biological design.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Open-endedness in synthetic biology: a route to continual innovation for biological design

Stock¹,

Gorochowski²

2023

Preprint

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“…Finally, synthetic biology and mycology sciences are expected to define the future of mycelium growth by using techniques such as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) for enhanced genome-wide mutational strain libraries. 37 These techniques will allow dynamic modeling of mycelium growth (such as high pH conditions) and support solid-state fermentation technologies for new enzyme production. Besides using synthetic biology tools to model the growth of mycelium, computational simulations (machine learning and artificial intelligence) would be a probable entry for a quantitative understanding of interactions between the different factors contributing to mycelium-bound biocomposite advanced properties.…”

Section: ■ Conclusion and Outlookmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although sustainability awareness has been a critical driver in this upward trend, the parallel growth of synthetic biology in unlocking and engineering new strains has provided an expanded toolbox for mycelium research and development possibilities. , In this regard, DNA engineering is a rapidly developing field that enables researchers to alter fungi’s genetic material to produce traits or behaviors. These new traits can benefit organisms in fields like biotechnology, medicine, agriculture, and bioremediation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Future utilizations of organisms will probably be much more inventive as insight into fungal science and hereditary qualities grows. 37,39 Mycelium-bound biocomposites are natural, low-cost, and sustainable materials with a low carbon footprint, thus contributing significantly to the circular economy and the sustainability agenda. 35 Although mycelium-bound biocomposites suffer from a lack of specification standards and challenges of comparisons of resultant properties due to the different biofabrication approaches, it is worth noting that the protocol for mycomaterial production is not complex.…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Through DNA engineering and training, exciting opportunities exist to enhance fungi’s performance in various settings. Future utilizations of organisms will probably be much more inventive as insight into fungal science and hereditary qualities grows. , …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Sustainable Mycelium-Bound Biocomposites: Design Strategies, Materials Properties, and Emerging Applications

Muiruri

Yeo

Zhu

et al. 2023

ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

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Extrication from the use of fossil-based products has grown more critical in recent years. This disengagement has been driven by deliberate environmental campaigns focusing on climate change and global warming threats and their consequences to humanity. As such, innovative replacements for fossilbased products, primarily by biobased materials, have recently been of considerable interest. Among the biobased materials, mycelium-bound biocomposites enhanced biologically or by nontoxic additives are one of the most creative and ecofriendly solutions because it fulfills the three pillars of sustainable development with positive impacts via circular economy design principles. In this review, the potential of mycelium-bound biocomposites is elucidated by comprehensively covering their state-of-the-art production from design strategies (variety of species, substrates, additives, and growth conditions) to postprocessing techniques and the resulting advanced material features. This review also covers the intriguing and growing areas of applications for mycelium-bound biocomposites, as well as the future outlook for enhanced material circularity and sustainability.

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Fungal Engineered Living Materials: The Viability of Pure Mycelium Materials with Self‐Healing Functionalities

Elsacker

Zhang

Dade‐Robertson

2023

Adv Funct Materials

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Engineered living materials (ELMs) composed entirely of fungal cells offer significant potential due to their functional properties such as self-assembly, sensing, and self-healing. Alongside rapid developments in the ELM field, there is significant and growing interest in mycelium materials, which are made from the vegetative part of filamentous fungi, as a potential source of advanced functional materials. In order to advance the development of fungal ELMs that utilize the organism's ability to regenerate as self-repair, new methods for controlling and optimizing mycelium materials are needed, as well as a better understanding of the biological mechanisms behind regeneration. In this study, pure mycelium materials are fabricated for use as leather substitutes, and it is found that chlamydospores, thick-walled vegetative cells formed at the hyphal tip, may be the key to the material's self-healing properties. The results suggest that mycelium materials can survive in dry and oligotrophic environments, and self-healing is possible with minimal intervention after a two-day recovery period. Finally, the study characterizes the mechanical recovery and physical properties of damaged and healed samples, allowing for the first characterization of fungal ELMs.

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Unlocking the magic in mycelium: Using synthetic biology to optimize filamentous fungi for biomanufacturing and sustainability

Cited by 26 publications

References 327 publications

Open-endedness in synthetic biology: a route to continual innovation for biological design

Open-endedness in synthetic biology: a route to continual innovation for biological design

Sustainable Mycelium-Bound Biocomposites: Design Strategies, Materials Properties, and Emerging Applications

Fungal Engineered Living Materials: The Viability of Pure Mycelium Materials with Self‐Healing Functionalities

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