The bacteria Neurospora Crassa formed a scaffold for living construction materials
Wim Van Egmond/Science Photo Library
Fungi and bacteria could one day become part of living building materials that can grow and repair.
When we try to reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions, one of the major challenges facing the world is finding more sustainable building materials. Concrete-only production accounts for more than 5% of total human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.
Some researchers want to develop engineered biological materials generated from cells, which have desirable attributes such as self-assembly, repair, and photosynthesis. Many powerful, mineralized structures exist in organisms such as bones and corals.
Chelsea Heberan Montana State University and her colleagues tested whether similar mineralized structures could be created around scaffolds of fungal mycelium. Mycelium is a network of microscopic, branching filaments that make up part of most fungi.
Heberan and her team grew mycelial scaffolds using fungi called Neurospora Crassa, After that, I applied bacteria Sporosarcina pasteurii On the scaffolding.
As fungi and bacteria metabolize urea in the growth medium, they formed a cured structure consisting of calcium carbonate, the same compound found in eggshells and shells.
She says the team drew inspiration from the bones. Bone has biological ninerals formed on scaffolds for collagen and other proteins. “The bones are very strong and tough considering how light it is,” Heberan says.
Although other biological materials created in the lab only lived for a few days, the structure developed by Heberan and her colleagues was viable for at least a month.
“We are excited by the outcome and look forward to engineering more complex and larger structures,” Heberan says. “If survival rates are high enough, we can actually convey persistent biological properties to materials that we care about, such as self-healing, sensing, and environmental repair.”
“Proposing mycelium as a scaffolding medium for living materials is a simple but powerful strategy,” he says. Aysu kuru At the University of Sydney.
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Source: www.newscientist.com
