Scientists make lettuce and tobacco produce meat protein

Livestock farming poses significant environmental burdens, including land use, water consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, the demand for plant-based meat alternatives is rapidly growing, reaching an estimated €6.7 billion to €8.1 billion annually and expected to expand at a CAGR of 8.1%-12.3% over the next decade.

Scientists at Imperial College London have now demonstrated a novel approach to producing meat protein using plants as biological factories. By genetically engineering lettuce and tobacco plants to produce myoglobin, an essential protein found in animal muscle, the researchers aim to make plant-based meat products more sustainable.

Myoglobin, which gives meat its red color and umami flavor, was inserted into the chloroplasts of tobacco and lettuce seedlings using a gene gun technique. Chloroplasts, which perform photosynthesis, proved to be highly efficient at producing myoglobin compared to the nuclear genome of the plants. The study's findings, published in Frontiers in Plant Science, suggest that cultivating edible crops could eventually serve as biological factories for producing specific animal proteins, offering a more sustainable path to meat alternatives.