Plant Cell Culture: A Revolutionary Approach in the AgriFoodTech Landscape

As science and technology continue to break ground in the agricultural space, plant cell culture, which has been used for decades across a number of industries including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and food, is emerging as a promising new frontier in finding sustainable ingredient alternatives to conventional agriculture. It is characterized by the cultivation of plant cells under sterile, controlled conditions to produce a variety of agriculturally relevant products. Plant cell culture holds enormous potential for sustainable and efficient production of high-value compounds. But, first, what exactly is plant cell culture?

Understanding Plant Cell Culture

Unlike traditional agriculture, plant cell culture focuses on the propagation of individual plant cells or tissues in a nutrient medium. Instead of conventional inputs (sun, soil, water, and fertilizer), bioreactors and feedstocks (typically sugar) are used to replicate the ideal growing conditions for the targeted compounds.

While cell culture science has seen a significant uptick in recent years, it’s not exactly new science. The German physician and physiologist Theodor Schwann (1810-1882) was the first to explore the idea of growing cells outside of their host body. He believed this could be done with both animal and plant cells. Soon after Schwann first posed the theory, another German scientist, Wilhelm Roux (1850-1924), successfully grew chicken embryos in a culture medium. Then, in 1898, German botanist Gottlieb Haberlandt (1854-1945) became the first known scientist to use in vitro methods to develop plant tissues outside of the host plant.

How does plant cell culture differ from other technology?

Plant cell culture is one of a number of ways plants are being used to make agriculture more sustainable and efficient, but it can be hard to keep track of the varying types of technology. Another method, molecular farming, is a practice that uses genetically modified plants to produce specific compounds. The target ingredients are grown inside carrier plants, such as soybeans. But this method typically still requires the plants to be grown and harvested via conventional soil-based or hydroponic farming methods.

Cellular agriculture is a tech similar to cell culture; but cellular agriculture typically uses microbes, such as yeast, that are altered to produce different proteins like casein or whey, both of which are found in dairy. Cellular agriculture can also take live inputs, such as a cell sample from a living animal (typically a non-invasive swab) that is then replicated in a bioreactor via a growth medium.

In contrast, plant cell culture leverages the innate biosynthetic capabilities of plant cells, promoting their growth in a contained environment. 

The benefits of plant cell culture

-Generates high-value bioactive compounds — such as vitamins, antioxidants, or pharmaceuticals — without the need for land or complex farming infrastructure. -Makes better use of resources

-Has a lower carbon footprint than conventional farming 

-Reduces the use of water and energy compared to the inputs required for conventional crop production. 

And in the case of plant cell culture, when a specific nutrient is the desired output, is the whole plant necessary? According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 1.4 billion hectares of land — 28 percent of the world’s agricultural area — is used annually to produce food that goes to waste. This includes plant waste left in fields following harvest, which totaled 5.5 billion tons in 2013. One study found crop residues produce 13 percent of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions including methane and C02.

Plant cell culture also offers other benefits including the potential for consistent quality and steady supply. Field farming is highly vulnerable to the impacts of extreme weather events such as drought, fire, and flooding as well as the risk of pathogens and pesticide exposure. Controlled growing environments via cell culture can help mitigate those risks, which are only expected to increase as the planet warms.

But what makes plant cell culture one of the most promising agri-tech advancements is its quick turnaround on higher yields. Industry leaders say they can create bioactive plant ingredients much more quickly than conventional agriculture as plant tissue cultures take several weeks to complete versus the months involved in conventional agriculture. This makes it a more sustainable agricultural solution. 

“Growing nutrients outside the plant is actually a simpler process than growing meat cells outside of the cow,” Kobi Avidan, CEO and co-founder of cell culture startup Novella, said in a statement last year. “Moreover, we can now cultivate any ingredient close to the market of interest. This will be instrumental in lowering costs, as well as lightening their ecological footprint.”

The Market Landscape

“I’ve been tracking it for a while now and I’m super excited about this space,” Nate Crosser, principal at VC firm Blue Horizon, an investor in plant cell culture startup California Cultured, recently told AgFunder News. “I think it could be bigger than cultivated meat in five years. The volumes you need to produce for most products are much lower, and the value is much higher, so it’s a huge space to watch.”

The category has seen rapid growth since 2017 when Chi Botanic began working with plant cell culture as a means to supplant conventional agricultural growing methods. The company says it’s “setting the new bar” for sustainable farming. One of its focuses is the cell culture development of vanilla — a staple ingredient in a range of products. 

Vanilla is produced by orchids native to South and Central America. But according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list of threatened plants and animals, all eight wild species of vanilla are facing the highest risk of extinction due in large part to changes in soil and temperatures affected by global warming.

In May 2023, Chi Botanic was awarded $175,000 from the USDA for its research and commercialization project for a new cell-cultured Vanilla 2.0 technology.

Following Chi’s launch, a number of new players in plant cell culture has taken root, including Ergo Bioscience, Celleste Bio, California Cultured, Ayana Bio, Green Bioactives, Novella, and Food Brewer.

Ayana Bio CEO Frank Jaksch says the $163 billion dietary supplement industry, in particular, is in “desperate need” of bioactives that are both traceable and more sustainable. “Bringing plant cell-derived health and wellness ingredients to these markets will help CPGs access the full spectrum of bioactives characteristic of these plants without the supply chain challenges,” he said in a statement last month. Ayana recently announced the first-ever launch of plant cell-cultivated lemon balm and echinacea. “Consumers are seeking out products for healthier lifestyles and a healthier planet,” Jaksch said.

Investments in the sector are ramping up too, with noteworthy participation from Ginkgo and Trendlines, which have made significant investments in this promising market. While a number of funding rounds have been undisclosed, Chi Botanic, California Cultured, and Green Bioactives have raised more than $10 million in early-stage funding to date.

 Challenges and Opportunities

Despite all of its potential, plant cell culture technology faces several challenges. The primary issue centers around scaling production, as optimizing conditions to encourage cell growth and compound synthesis is a delicate and complex task.

However, overcoming these hurdles opens up a world of opportunities. The potential to produce high-value compounds in an environmentally friendly way could significantly transform industries including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and food production.

Consider Ergo Bioscience, an Argentinian startup, that’s striving to use plant cell culture technology to produce sustainable, plant-based ingredients. Ergo is working to develop what it says is the first plant-based myoglobin to replicate meat and dairy. Last October, Ergo was named one of the 45 startups to watch according to Rabobank. The company uses a cell culture based on carrots for the production of its protein. 

Or take Novella, an Israeli firm aiming to revolutionize the way we perceive and consume plant-based products, using plant cell culture to create superior plant-based ingredients. The startup has been turning its attention toward plants including the dark, leafy green vegetable kale, which has applications in the food and pharma industries.

The Collaborative Push

The need for collaboration and shared innovation is evident in the partnerships and corporate initiatives in this sector. Investments from Ginkgo and Trendlines signal the broader industry’s growing interest and confidence in this technology.

Companies are working together, too. Ergo Bioscience recently partnered with  Italy’s Aethera Biotech to help scale up its precision fermentation tech. Following its £2.6m seed funding last year, startup Green Biosciences says it’s looking to establish partnerships across a number of applications.

Ergo is also working with a consumer goods company to develop products in the foods and drinks, home care, personal care, and cosmetics industries. It’s also working with a multinational biotechnology company developing and selling products for commercial applications in pharmaceuticals, consumer healthcare, and agriculture, And it’s working with a global agricultural solutions company that specializes in the development, marketing, and processing of agricultural inputs including crop protection products, seeds, and fertilizer.

Conclusion

In the face of looming environmental challenges, plant cell culture presents a revolutionary approach in the AgriFoodTech landscape. It offers an efficient, sustainable method to produce high-value compounds, with implications for various industries, including food production, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. Although scaling production poses challenges, ongoing innovations, partnerships, and the growing interest and investments in this field suggest its game-changing potential.

To learn more about the plant cell culture landscape, book a demo of the Foodtech Data Navigator.