SBIR Phase II: Engineering brewer's yeast for enhanced flavor production during fermentation

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发工程啤酒酵母，在啤酒发酵过程中产生啤酒花风味化合物，以取代对农业生产的啤酒花的需求。 使用农业生产的啤酒花作为风味组分提出了几个挑战：1）啤酒花种植是自然资源密集型的，2）啤酒花赋予的风味在批次之间是不一致的，3）冗长的农业时间表将需求与供应分离，以及4）新的风味品种受到缓慢和资本密集型啤酒花育种计划的限制。该项目建立了一个产品开发框架，用于工程啤酒酵母在发酵过程中产生符合消费者偏好的风味化合物。该项目开发的技术将实现啤酒花风味的可持续、一致、按需生产，此外，还可以扩展到其他风味和其他可发酵产品。SBIR二期项目将开发工程啤酒酵母，用于生产通常来自啤酒花的风味化合物。目前，啤酒工业依赖于农业生产的啤酒花来赋予啤酒感官上丰富的风味和特征。工程酵母菌株将作为传统酿造菌株的替代品，因为它们既发酵啤酒，又在成品啤酒中产生所需浓度的风味化合物。通过将敏捷开发框架应用于酵母菌株开发，将产生新的啤酒酵母菌株，产生啤酒酿造商和消费者喜欢的风味花束。编码风味化合物生产生物合成途径的基因将被整合到啤酒酵母中，各种基因调控程序将被测试，从而在成品啤酒中产生无数风味。将在小规模微需氧发酵中对菌株进行初步评价，并通过GC/MS进行分析，以筛选相关风味化合物浓度。根据筛选结果，具有所需目标风味化合物浓度的菌株将用于以工业中试规模生产啤酒，以供感官分析小组评估，作为产生消费者反馈的手段。该工作流程将以迭代的方式部署，以优化啤酒花风味酿造酵母的性能。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to develop engineered brewer's yeast to produce hop flavor compounds during beer fermentation, so as to replace the need for agriculturally produced hops. Using agriculturally produced hops as a flavor component poses several challenges: 1) hops farming is natural resource intensive, 2) flavors imparted by hops are inconsistent from batch-to-batch, 3) lengthy agriculture timelines decouple demand from supply, and 4) new flavor varieties are restricted by slow and capital intensive hops breeding programs. This project establishes a product development framework for engineering brewer's yeast to produce flavor compounds during fermentation that are matched to consumer preferences. The technology developed during this project will allow for sustainable, consistent, on-demand production of hop flavors, and, in addition, may be extended to additional flavors and other fermentable products.This SBIR Phase II project will develop engineered brewer's yeast for production of flavor compounds that are ordinarily derived from hops. At present, the beer industry relies on agriculturally produced hops to impart organoleptically rich flavors and character to beer. Engineered yeast strains will serve as a drop-in replacement for conventional brewing strains, in that they both ferment beer and produce flavor compounds at concentrations desired in the finished beer. By applying an agile development framework towards yeast strain development, new brewer's yeast strains will be generated that produce flavor bouquets preferred by brewers and consumers. Genes that encode biosynthetic pathways for production of flavor compounds will be incorporated into brewer's yeast, and various gene regulatory programs will be tested that give rise to myriad flavor bouquets in finished beer. Strains will be initially evaluated in small-scale micro-aerobic fermentations and analyzed by GC/MS to screen for relevant flavor compound concentrations. Based on screening results, strains with desired target flavor compound concentrations will be used to produce beer at industrial pilot scale for evaluation by sensory analysis panels as a means of generating consumer feedback. This workflow will be deployed in an iterative fashion to optimize the performance of the hops flavor-producing brewer's yeast.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.