It is often said that sex makes things complicated. This might not however, always be a bad thing. In this story, sex transformed a boring bit of cheese mould into a force with the power to change an industry. One day, it might even help clean up oil spills and remove dangerous chemicals from the land.
For years, it was thought that Penicillium roqueforti, the mould that gives blue cheese its familiar colour and flavour, did not have sex at all. The species was considered asexual, but in a story that will be familiar to many of us, it turned out that it just wasn’t in the mood. It was not until Professor Paul Dyer, a fungal biologist at the University of Nottingham, determined the ideal lighting and conditions to facilitate fungal sex, that the hidden truth was revealed.
It turned out that P. roqueforti has two distinct sex types, which were soon imaginatively named ‘Mating Type 1’ and ‘Mating Type 2’. Professor Dyer also realised that the different strains of P. roqueforti commonly used to make blue cheeses such as Stilton, Roquefort and Gorgonzola, sat on defined branches of a family tree. Many of these strains were different mating types, meaning that with a bit of gentle encouragement and the right lighting, they could be naturally cross bred. And as we know, whenever sex occurs, things can get complicated very quickly.
In the world of cheese moulds, this added bit of complexity was badly needed. Because they had been considered asexual for so long, the moulds used in commercial blue cheese production had remained the same for decades. There are currently only 12-14 different strains widely used around the world, and in the UK, almost all blue cheese is produced from the same 3 types. As these strains have been reproducing asexually for such a long time, genetic drift has caused them to lose vigour, with mutations affecting many of their vital cheese making properties. As identifying new moulds from the wild is a difficult process requiring years of screening, no new strains have been introduced for more than forty years. The discovery of fungal sex came at a time when a new approach was desperately needed.
Breeding the two mating types together was the perfect way of creating new strains of P. Roqueforti, without having to screen thousands of species from the wild. The complexity introduced by sex turned out to be a mine of useful properties. Pretty soon, moulds with dramatically different colours and flavours were being produced. Milder tasting moulds, green moulds, pink moulds and moulds with newly intense flavours were produced, with the potential to make exciting new cheese varieties. As fungal species were bred together, artisan properties, lost in time from before the industry standardised in the mid-twentieth century, were being rediscovered.
The only problem was that these properties were being rediscovered in a University laboratory, not an artisan cheese shop. It rapidly became clear that fungal sex had implications for the food industry, and help would be required to bring this technology to the world. At this stage however, it was still very much a rarefied academic project, a long way from commercial viability. Partners would be needed that could understand the science, realise the potential and be capable of bringing products to market.
Enter New Food Innovation, a specialist consultancy based out of Nottingham University with a raft of food industry experience, and a history of converting academic research into business reality. Not only did NFI understand the science, they had the industry nous to determine a path to commercialisation. With support from the University they created a company, Myconeos, with Professor Dyer as Science and Technology Director, and secured funding for further testing and research.
Soon, Myconeos were producing a range of uniquely coloured and flavoured cheeses for consumer testing, where they regularly outperformed existing products. They were also exploring areas with the potential to be even more lucrative, such as the creation of novel flavour compounds, colours, and enzymes. NFI’s commercial insight led to the development of new moulds with the potential to reduce maturation times, influence water activity and affect shelf life. Moulds with milder flavours proved appealing to younger consumers. More intense moulds could reduce application rates in cheese sauces. Before long, Myconeos had a library of 150 new strains capable of doing previously impossible things, all created using entirely non-GMO techniques, with no need for novel food applications. They also had patents in place to protect their unique process, something made possible by the considerable IP expertise of the NFI team.
Myconeos now has a base at BioCity in Nottingham, with a pilot plant online and strains currently being developed for commercial cheese applications. Its technology has the potential to reinvent the blue cheese market, and because of its unprecedented versatility, will no doubt have future applications in the production of fermented meats and the development of novel proteins. But it is in another, even more surprising area that fungal sex might prove to be a genuine global gamechanger.
Bioremediation is the process of using microorganisms to clean up soil and groundwater contaminated by chemical spills. Moulds have the potential to break up hydrocarbons left behind after oil spills, and species with the right properties can even remove heavy metal contamination. The use of fungal sex to increase the diversity of available microorganisms has the potential to revolutionise this field, making it more efficient, targeted, and effective. Carefully developed fungal strains could clean up contaminated land, making it suitable for agriculture, so helping address some of the most significant problems facing humanity. The first bioremediation strains produced using fungal breeding techniques are currently at the concept testing phase in the Myconeos labs.
It is amazing how a bit of sex can change everything. In this case, there’s a good chance that it might just change the world.
Credits:
Created with images by Prostock-studio - "Different cheese composition" • Igor Normann - "Pieces of blue cheese on a forks and red wine." • tashka2000 - "blue cheese" • Martin Lee - "Blue Stilton Cheese on Thin Crisp Wholewheat Crackers" • bigacis - "Blue cheese slices isolated on white, from above"