Filamentous fungal biomats, methods of their production and methods of their use

• US 10,577,579 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2019
• Issued: 03/03/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fynder Group Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Sustainable Bioproducts, Inc.
• Inventors: Kozubal, Mark A., Macur, Richard E., Avniel, Yuval C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Yamasaki, Robert J
• Application Number:
  US16/442,130
• Publication Number:
  US 20190316077A1
• Time in Patent Office: 263 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 3/347 Use of yeasts or fungi C02F3/322 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: C12N 1/02 Separating microorganisms from their culture media
• CPC Class Codes: C12N 1/14 Fungi culture of mushrooms A01G18/00; as new plants A01H15/00; Culture media therefor
• CPC Class Codes: C12N 1/145 Fungal isolates
• CPC Class Codes: C12R 2001/645 Fungi ; Processes using fungi
• CPC Class Codes: C12R 2001/66 Aspergillus
• CPC Class Codes: C12R 2001/77 Fusarium
• CPC Class Codes: C12R 2001/785 Mucor
• CPC Class Codes: C12R 2001/80 Penicillium
• CPC Class Codes: C12R 2001/84 Pichia
• CPC Class Codes: C12R 2001/845 Rhizopus
• CPC Class Codes: C12R 2001/885 Trichoderma

Abstract

A novel method of growing fungi is disclosed which uses an engineered artificial media and produces high density filamentous fungi biomats that can be harvested with a minimum of processing and from which fungal products such as antibiotics, proteins, and lipids can be isolated, the method resulting in lowered fungus cultivation costs for energy usage, oxygenation, water usage and waste stream production.

Claims

1. A food product, comprising a filamentous fungal strain MK7 (ATCC Accession Deposit No. PTA-10698) biomat, wherein the biomat has a protein content of at least 40% when the biomat has a moisture content of about 4.5%, wherein the biomat is produced by a surface fermentation method comprising inoculating an artificial liquid medium with a biologically pure culture of filamentous fungi comprising MK7 and incubating the inoculated filamentous fungi to produce the biomat on the surface of the liquid medium, wherein the biomat comprises at least two structurally different cell layers in contact with each other, including an upper aerial hyphae layer in contact with the atmosphere during the surface fermentation and a lower layer in contact with the liquid media during the surface fermentation, wherein the structural difference between the cell layers is that the lower layer has a higher fungal density than the aerial hyphae layer.

2. The food product of claim 1, wherein the biomat comprises amino acids selected from selected from the group consisting of tryptophan, cysteine, methionine, alanine, arginine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, glycine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, proline, serine, threonine, lysine, tyrosine, valine and combinations thereof produced by the filamentous fungi.

3. The food product of claim 1, wherein the biomat has a lipid content of at least 39%.

4. The food product of claim 1, wherein the food product is selected from group consisting of a human food, fish feed and animal feed.

5. The food product according to claim 1, wherein the biomat is produced by culturing the filamentous fungi to produce at least 50 g dry wt filamentous fungi/l media.

6. The food product according to claim 1, wherein the biomat is produced by culturing the filamentous fungi to produce at least 120 g dry wt filamentous fungi/l media.

7. The food product according to claim 1, wherein the biomat is produced by culturing the filamentous fungi to produce at least 180 g dry wt filamentous fungi/l media.

8. The food product according to claim 1, wherein the biomat further comprises a transitional layer between the aerial hyphae layer and the lower layer.

9. The food product according to claim 1, wherein the biomat is produced by culturing the filamentous fungi to produce at least 25 g dry wt filamentous fungi/l media.

10. The food product according to claim 1, wherein the biomat is between 5% and 20% solids.

11. The food product according to claim 1, wherein the biomat has an average filament length of between 0.05 cm and 2 cm.

12. The food product according to claim 1, wherein the biomat comprises all essential amino acids.

13. The food product according to claim 1, wherein the protein comprises about 20% branched chain amino acids.