Gene-gun lettuce, tobacco yield meat protein myoglobin

The Story in Brief

Scientists at Imperial College London have used a gene gun to insert pig and cattle myoglobin genes into lettuce and tobacco plants, achieving yields of up to 810 milligrams of the meat protein per kilogram of dry leaf. The findings, published in *Frontiers in Plant Science*, show that chloroplasts, the plant cell structures that carry out photosynthesis, produced three times more myoglobin than standard gene insertion into the plant's nuclear genome. Real meat contains roughly 8.1, 11.2 milligrams of myoglobin per gram of dry weight.

The global meat-alternative market is estimated at Rs 56,000, 68,000 crore (€6.7, 8.1 billion) and is projected to grow 8.1, 12.3 per cent annually over the next decade. The researchers describe the work as a proof of principle. Myoglobin gives meat its umami flavour and red colour. If the process can be scaled commercially, the purified protein could be added to plant-based meats or genetically engineered lettuce could itself be sold as an iron-enriched food, subject to regulatory approvals.