“Meat-flavored Chickpeas”.. Producing Animal Protein Within Plants

An international research team, comprising researchers from Chinese, American, and British universities, has succeeded in producing a single animal protein within a plant, marking a first step toward the production of additional animal proteins.

According to Al Jazeera Net, the research team began its study, published in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science, with myoglobin, considered the most important of animal proteins. It occurs naturally in the muscles of vertebrate animals, and its primary function is to bind and store oxygen within muscle tissue. It plays a significant role in the sensory qualities of meat, as it contributes to the red or pink color of meat, as well as certain characteristics related to flavor and aroma.

To introduce this gene into lettuce plants, the researchers used a technique known as plastid transformation, inserting the gene responsible for its production in animals into the plant’s chloroplasts.