Science

Transgenic soybeans could replace pork, by producing pig proteins

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Regular soybeans (top) as compared to porky-pink Piggy Sooy beans (bottom)
Moolec
Moolec presently runs molecular farming operations in the US, Europe and South America
Moolec
Regular soybeans (top) as compared to porky-pink Piggy Sooy beans (bottom)
Moolec

Great strides are being made in the field of lab-grown meat, but its price remains a barrier to wide commercial use. British startup Moolec has created what it claims is a less costly alternative, in the form of soya plants that produce pig-protein-rich beans.

Although the details of Moolec's molecular farming technology are a trade secret, the company states that it has added pig genes to the genome of regular soya plants. As a result, a quarter of the proteins in those plants' "Piggy Sooy" beans are pig proteins – 26.6%, to be precise. The flesh of the soybeans even has a pink, pork-like color.

"Each protein is selected to add value in terms of targeted functionality like taste, texture, and nutritional values," the company states on its website.

Farmers will raise the plants via conventional agricultural practices. Once the beans have been harvested and processed – again, via conventional techniques – their proteins will go into meat substitutes and other products. Pea plants which produce beef proteins are reportedly also in the works.

Moolec presently runs molecular farming operations in the US, Europe and South America
Moolec

As is the case with lab-grown pork, it is hoped that commercial adoption of Piggy Sooy could ultimately eliminate the raising and slaughtering of pigs, along with the associated ethical and environmental concerns.

"Moolec has developed a unique, successful, and patentable platform for the expression of highly valuable proteins in the seeds of economically important crops such as soybeans," says the company's chief science officer, Amit Dhingra. "This achievement opens up a precedent for the entire scientific community that is looking to achieve high levels of protein expression in seeds via molecular farming."

There's currently no word on when foods containing the proteins may be available to consumers.

Source: Moolec via New Scientist

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11 comments
Hon
This sounds quite horrific
usugo
funny
I was just wondering recently why no one had yet cloned egg, milk proteins in plants to boost their nutritional value.
CoachFerg
Hell no! This mandate for the removal of natural foods from the diet in a religious drive towards a utopian “net zero” outcome as well as the appeasement of radical veganists will doom human kind.
Getthefacts4achange
This is not going to go anywhere yet. This is because farmers and producers will get this soybean mixed with existing soybeans and create massive problems. It’s well recognized you can’t keep them separate in the field. Soybeans in one field wouldn’t easily mix with soybeans in an adjacent field but it’s not 100% certain you can avoid mixing this new soy with ordinary soy. They would have to be grown in greenhouses first. Also they should add a gene throat makes the soy seed a distinct color -blue or red so with a gpanace you can see if it has mixed. If a cargo ship of soybeans going to a country like China is shown to have been mixed with any of this soy the whole cargo is worthless and that is a massive liability. Hopefully the company is aware of this. But startups often don’t gain the necessary expertise the solve this type of problem ahead of time - even the big GMO companies failed at first….
Ranscapture
Soon as you can make bacon eggplant I’m in.
Laszlo KRUPPA
Congrats for working hard on making poor pigs extinct.
zort
One step closer to having my very own bacon tree in the yard!
TpPa
My God I hate to see the up coming side affects.
CDE
Have they done any marketing studies to see if there is any real interest in this Frankenfood? Or is this the new version of Soylent Green? No interest on my part at all!
Old J Hawthorne
I've often wondered...could the gene from an elephant that produces ivory be introduced into Texas Longhorn cattle? That way, ivory could be produced in cattle, lowering the price and saving elephants from being killed for the ivory. Ok, this has nothing to do with the article, just thought I'd put it out there...and btw, might as well get used to this kind of thing, you can't put the genie back into the bottle.