Fungal food

Details Fungal food Fungal food

1998-06-12

1999-11-09

Hendricks, Keith D.

Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products

Dormant ferment containing product, or live microorganism...

426656, 4352565, C12N 114, A23J 118

Patent

active

059809582

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
This Invention relates to fungus.
Human foodstuffs are produced commercially from Fusarium which is a haploid fungus. A particularly suitable strain of Fusarium A3/5, IMI 145425 is described in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 4,347.
It is desirable in order to produce human foodstuffs of attractive mouth feel that the Fusarium should show little hyphal branching, and this is the case with Fusarium, IMI 145425. However, Fusarium in extended continuous fermentation invariably becomes more highly branched due to the appearance of variants in the fermenter culture. The appearance of highly branched variants appears to be a common feature of extended fungal fermentations. (Trinci, A. P. J, et al., (1990) Microbial Growth Dynamics, pp 17-38, IRL Press, Oxford U.K.)
It is therefore desirable that strains of Fusarium, of greater morphological stability should be produced.
In fungal strain breeding programmes the parasexual cycle has often been reported as a valuable means of improving commercially important production strains, since it enables the advantageous characteristics of two individuals to be combined via recombination, heterokaryosis or diploidy. For example, diploids have been claimed to give increased productivity of citric acid (Das & Roy, 1978), penicillin (Elander et al., 1973), and cephalosporin C (Takeda Chemical co., 1977). Reports of qualitative improvements include restoration of sporulation ability in P. chrysogenum (Calam et al., 1976), improved filtration characteristics in A, niger (Ball et al., 1978), generally improved vigour in C. acremonium (Hamlyn & Ball, 1979), reduced oxygen demand in M. inyoensis (Crueger, 1982), and elimination of p-hydroxypenicillin V production in P. chrysogenum (Chang et al., 1982). By contrast there appears to be no clear demonstration of parasexuality in Fusarium (Booth, 1984) although putative diploids of F. oxysporum have been described (Buxton, 1956). Attemps to demonstrate the production of diploids of F. graminearum NRRL 319 (Bu'Lock et al., 1986) were unsuccessful but heterokaryotes were reported.
According to Rowlands (1984) diploids are unstable and are likely to break down during fermentation with progressive loss of productivity unless some sort of selection pressure can be applied. In S. cerevisiae there is evidence that adaptive mutations occur at a higher (.times.1.6) frequency in an evolving diploid than in haploid populations (Paquin and Adams, 1983). This supports the view that diploid populations of fungi are unstable. We have however found that certain higher ploidy strains of fungi imperfecti show an increase in (morphological) stability under typical growth conditions relative to the parental haploids.
We have now made strains of Fusarium of higher ploidy and have devised means whereby other higher ploidy strains of Fungi imperfecti especially Fusarium may be produced. These have better morphological stability than haploid strains. It is thought possible that this may be at least partly due to reduced sensitivity to mutation arising from the fact that the mutant genes leading to higher branching may be recessive and that in this case corresponding mutations of both the duplicated genes in higher ploidy strains are necessary before a hereditary characteristic can be passed on by asexual reproduction. Fungi imperfecti differ from other fungi in that they do not normally pass through a sexual stage. Thus, it can be predicted that higher ploidy strains will generally show greater stability in inherited characteristics than haploid strains providing that they are cultured under conditions such that reversion or partial reversion of the haploid form is negligable.
By "higher ploidy" is meant higher ploidy than haploid including anenploid.
This invention comprises a human food product which comprises higher ploidy strain of a member of the Fungi imperfecti of which each parent has a genetic constraint on its ability to grow which is not shared by the other parent. The invention also comprises a higher ploidy strain of Fusarium. Preferably one parent is auxotro

REFERENCES:
patent: 4041189 (1977-08-01), Towersey et al.
patent: 4163692 (1979-08-01), Yates
Biotechnology Letters, vol. 8, No. 5, 1986, pp. 323-326, XP000197054 J.D.Bu'lok et al: "Regulation of mycotoxin production by Fusarium graminearum: complementation effects between two mutant types".
Mycological Research, vol. 95, No. 11, 1991, pp. 1284-1288, XP000197035, M.B.Wiebe et al: "Appearance of morphological (colonial) mutants in glucose-limited, continuous flow cultures of Fusarium graminearumA3/5".
Microbiology, vol. 140, No. 11, 1994, pp. 3015-3021, IP000197157, M.G. Wiebe et al: "Use of a series of chemostat cultures to isolate `improved` variants of the Quorn (R) mycoprotein fungus, Fusarium graminearum A3/5".
J.S.Smith et al: The filamentous fungi, vol. 1, 1975, Industrial Mycology, XP000197032.
Food Laboratory Newsletter, vol. 6, No. 6, 1986, pp. 21-24, XP000197156, G. Edwards: "Myco-protein-the development of a new food".
Nature, vol. 287, No. 5777, 1980, p. 6, XP000647700, P. Newmark: "Meat substitutes. Fungal food".
Microbiology, vol. 142, No. 3, 1996, pp. 525-532, XP000197270, M.G.Wiebe et al: "How do highly branched (colonial) mutants of Fusarium graminearum A3/5 arise during Quorn ( R ) mycoprotein fermentations?".

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