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Fungal Innovations—Advancing Sustainable Materials, Genetics, and Applications for Industry

Summary

Fungi can be engineered to create sustainable, eco-friendly materials for construction, textiles, and packaging. Using advanced genetic tools and controlled growing conditions, scientists can customize fungal materials to have specific properties like flexibility or rigidity. These mycelium-based materials are biodegradable, renewable, and offer promising alternatives to traditional synthetic and conventional materials, helping reduce our dependence on petroleum-based products.

Background

Fungi play crucial roles in breaking down organic matter, producing valuable metabolites, and eliminating environmental contamination. Filamentous fungi offer transformative possibilities for producing sustainable bio-based materials through their natural growth capabilities. However, the full potential of fungi remains largely untapped due to limitations in controlling and optimizing their complex biological systems.

Objective

This review synthesizes key developments in synthetic biology and fabrication approaches to illustrate emerging opportunities for filamentous fungi in sustainable and biodegradable material applications. The focus is on engineering fungal strains and optimizing external environmental parameters to produce rigid and flexible fungal-derived materials.

Results

The review identifies key fungal materials with defined mechanical properties ranging from rigid composites (compressive strength 0.17-1.1 MPa) to flexible materials (tensile strength 5.6-14 MPa for leather-like materials). Advanced synthetic biology tools enable precise control over gene expression, and multiple production techniques support customizable material properties suited for construction, textiles, packaging, and biomedical applications.

Conclusion

Filamentous fungi represent promising platforms for sustainable bio-based material production through integration of synthetic biology tools and optimized fabrication processes. Addressing challenges in scalability, automation, regulatory compliance, and genetic engineering will enable fungi to contribute significantly to sustainable solutions across various industrial sectors.
  • Published in:Journal of Fungi (Basel),
  • Study Type:Review,
  • Source: 10.3390/jof11100721; PMID: 41149911
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