Fungi can become drug chemical 'factories'

VIENNA, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Lowly mold fungi can be genetically modified to become chemical factories to create valuable pharmaceuticals, European researchers say.

Scientists at the Vienna University of Technology have introduced bacterial genes into the fungus Trichoderma that allow it to produce important chemicals for the pharmaceutical industry from an abundant raw material, chitin, which makes up the shells of crustaceans.

Breaking down the chitin, the fungi can produce the pharmaceutical chemical N-Acetylneuraminic acid or NANA, which can be used to create anti-viral drugs, researcher said.

"We knew that Trichoderma can degrade chitin -- that's what the fungus naturally does in soil", researcher Astrid Mach-Aigner said in a university release.

"Usually, Trichoderma breaks down chitin to monomer amino sugars", Mach-Aigner said, but with the new genes the fungus can produce the desired NANA chemical.

Chitin is, after cellulose, the most abundant biopolymer on earth, found the shells of crustaceans, insects, snails and cephalopods, making it a very sustainable resource for chemical synthesis, the researchers said.