Fungus-derived protein particles as cell-adhesive matrices for cell-cultivated food

Cell-adhesive factors mediate adhesion of cells to substrates via peptide motifs such as the Arg–Gly–Asp (RGD) sequence. With the onset of sustainability issues, there is a pressing need to find alternatives to animal-derived cell-adhesive factors, especially for cell-cultivated food applications. In this paper, we show how data mining can be a powerful approach toward identifying fungal-derived cell-adhesive proteins and present a method to isolate and utilize these proteins as extracellular matrices (ECM) to support cell adhesion and culture in 3D. Screening of a protein database for fungal and plant proteins uncovered that ~5.5% of the unique reported proteins contain RGD sequences. A plot of fungi species vs RGD percentage revealed that 98% of the species exhibited an RGD percentage > = 1%. We observed the formation of protein particles in crude extracts isolated from basidiomycete fungi, which could be correlated to their stability towards particle aggregation at different temperatures. These protein particles were incorporated in 3D fiber matrices encapsulating mouse myoblast cells, showing a positive effect on cell alignment. We demonstrated a cell traction stress on the protein particles (from Flammulina velutipes) that was comparable to cells on fibronectin. A snapshot of the RGD-containing proteins in the fungal extracts was obtained by combining SDS-PAGE and mass spectrometry of the peptide fragments obtained by enzymatic cleavage. Therefore, a sustainable source of cell-adhesive proteins is widely available in the fungi kingdom. A method has been developed to identify candidate species and produce cell-adhesive matrices, applicable to the cell-cultivated food and healthcare industries.