Animal pathways can also be reconstructed for example, producing shark squalene for vaccines and moth hormones to disrupt an agricultural pest 16, 17. An early landmark achievement to make the anti-malarial Artimisin was taken into production by Sanofi, but was discontinued because the cost was higher than sourcing it from the plant 14, 15. Similarly, plant pathways to pharmaceuticals have been moved into yeast, including taxadiene (Taxol precursor), steroids, THC and opiates and efforts are underway to scale-up these processes 9, 12, 13. The palate of food additives that are obtained from engineered yeast is growing rapidly, with products emerging that contain Vitamin E (DSM), Stevia (Amyris and DSM) and milk whey (Perfect Day). This includes computational tools for pathway design, methods to discover and modify enzymes so that they can be ported from plants, precision part libraries to balance their expression, techniques to assemble and integrate large multi-gene pathways and genome editing to redirect carbon flux 9, 10, 11. Worldwide, their products are available in over 30,000 restaurants and 15,000 grocery stores.Īdvances in metabolic engineering have simplified the transfer of a pathway from its natural source to a production host, making it possible to move larger pathways to yeast with less effort 9. Optimizing the production strain involved DNA synthesis, Gibson Assembly, genetic part libraries and a positive feedback loop for autoinduction. Compared to a beef patty, the Impossible Burger requires 96% less land and 89% fewer greenhouse gases. The yeast Pichia pastoris was engineered to produce soy leghemoglobin, which improves meaty flavors and aromas when added to a plant-based burger 8.
Impossible Foods recognized that blood, specifically the iron-containing heme, is important for the taste and experience of eating a hamburger 7.