Abstract
Due to significant environmental concerns associated with industrial livestock farming, it is vital to accelerate the development of sustainable production methods for foods. Cellular agriculture presents an option, by using cell culture, as opposed to whole animals, to generate foods, including meats, eggs, and dairy products. The cost-effective scale-up of such cultured products requires addressing key constraints in core research areas: (1) cell sources, (2) growth media, (3) scaffolding biomaterials and (4) bioreactor design. Here we summarize work in the area of insect cell cultures as a promising avenue to address some of the needs in the field. Properties unique to invertebrate cells from insects allow for convenient and efficient tissue production and have already been exploited for various applications, such as industrial recombinant protein production. Insect muscle has also been employed in the field of tissue engineering for bioactuator applications. Compared to mammalian or avian cultures, invertebrate cell cultures require fewer resources and are more resilient to changes in environmental conditions, as they can thrive in a wide range of temperature, pH and osmolarity conditions. Alterations necessary for large-scale production are relatively simple to achieve with insect cells, including immortalization, serum-free media adaptation and suspension culture. Additional benefits include ease of transfection, nutrient density, and relevance to seafood organisms. To advance insect-based tissue engineering for food purposes, it is necessary to develop methods to regulate the differentiation of insect cells into relevant cell types, characterize cell interactions with biomaterials with an eye towards 3D culture, design supportive bioreactor systems and quantify nutritional profiles of cultured biomass.
Highlights
Animal Agriculture and Food SustainabilityThe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations released a recent report stating that in order to prevent global warming from increasing above 1.5◦C, a goal that could prevent the severity of natural disasters correlated with a 2.0◦C increase, anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions need to decrease 45% by 2030 (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2018)
In 2013, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations assessed animal agriculture to be responsible for 14.5% of anthropogenic GHG emissions (Gerber et al, 2013)
Cellular agriculture is a rapidly growing field of innovation through which such a food system can be achieved without requiring consumer behavior change
Summary
Animal Agriculture and Food SustainabilityThe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations released a recent report stating that in order to prevent global warming from increasing above 1.5◦C, a goal that could prevent the severity of natural disasters correlated with a 2.0◦C increase, anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions need to decrease 45% by 2030 (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2018). The abridged process for cultured meat production involves (1) procuring cells, (2) proliferating the cells in bioreactors, (3) adhering the cells to scaffold systems, and (4) promoting differentiation into muscle and fat tissues (Arshad et al, 2017). Pursuing research and development for insect cell-based foods may be a powerful means of generating new sustainable food products and accelerating the field of cellular agriculture.
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