Uncovering the Design Rules for Sustainable Growth of Mineralized Mycomaterials.
Moss DH, Pear O, Guío J, Libonati A, Ducat D
Soil Health
Fungi-based materials could replace plastics and foams in packaging, insulation, and construction — reducing the petrochemical waste that pollutes soils and waterways where your garden plants grow.
Fungi can be grown into solid, moldable materials, but they've always been too weak and too expensive to compete with plastics. Scientists solved this by teaching the fungus to coat its own threads in minerals — the same way sea sponges build hard shells — and by copying how lichens survive on almost nothing. The result is a stronger, cheaper fungal material grown using rules that can now be applied by other researchers.
Key Findings
An enzyme from sea sponges (silicatein α) was successfully displayed on the surface of fungal threads, enabling the fungus to mineralize and substantially increase its mechanical strength.
A synthetic lichen-inspired growth system was developed to lower production costs, addressing one of the two main barriers to commercial mycomaterial use.
The study produced explicit design rules — a reusable framework — for engineering mineralized mycomaterials, moving the field from trial-and-error toward predictable, programmable fabrication.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers engineered filamentous fungi to grow stronger, cheaper materials by borrowing a mineral-building enzyme from sea sponges and a low-cost growth strategy from lichens. The result is a roadmap for making fungal materials tough enough for real-world use without expensive production.
Abstract Preview
Mycomaterials, materials made from filamentous fungi, have several advantages over traditional materials such as their genetic programmability and self-healing properties. However, their lack of me...
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