SBIR Phase I: Advanced multi-locus genome engineering to enable consolidated bioprocessing for the low-cost conversion of lignocellulose to hydrocarbon fuels and products

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响是测试一种创新的新方法来产生具有工业价值的微生物。如果成功，新的方法将通过提高工程细菌将生物质成分转化为燃料的能力来展示。这项研究的好处将是帮助开发一种技术，可以将国内生产的非食品类生物质转化为燃料，成本足够低，可以成为美国能源解决方案的重要组成部分。美国将从生产这种低成本的纤维素生物燃料中实现多重好处。然而，实现这一目标需要有意义地降低转换成本的创新的新方法。该项目寻求一种创新的新方法来设计未知遗传基础的细菌表型，同时生产可用于生物质转化的菌株，这种方法称为联合生物处理(CBP)。这项技术将利用自然能力，即一些细菌摄取DNA的能力，扩大工业微生物通过非定向/进化方法开发的表型的复杂性。该解决方案证明了一种名为多重自然转化的连续进化(CE-MUNT)技术在具有复杂、未知遗传基础的具有商业价值的表型选择计划中的可行性。通过使用不需要人类干预的大规模和快速的基因转移，有可能迅速创建一大组遗传多样性的突变，然后可以选择这些突变的目标特征。重要的是，这种方法不受存在的关于有机体的重大知识差距的限制。该项目将启动旨在将生物质乙醇催化转化为适合航空和重型应用的碳氢化合物的研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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 of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to test an innovative new approach to generating industrially valuable microorganisms. If successful, the new approach will be demonstrated by improving the ability of an engineered bacterium to convert components of biomass into fuel. The benefit of that research will be to help develop a technology that can convert domestically-produced, non-food biomass into fuel at a low enough cost that it can become a significant part of America’s energy solution. The United States would realize multiple benefits from the production of such low-cost cellulosic biofuels. However, realization of this objective requires innovative new approaches that meaningfully decrease the cost of conversion. This project seeks an innovative new approach to engineering bacterial phenotypes with an unknown genetic basis, while at the same time producing strains useful for a method of biomass conversion called Consolidated Bioprocessing (CBP). The technology will expand the complexity of phenotypes that can be developed in industrial microbes by non-directed /evolutionary methods by taking advantage of natural competence, which is the ability of some bacteria to take up DNA. The solution demonstrates the feasibility of a technique called Continuous Evolution with Multiplex Natural Transformation (CE-MuNT), in a program of selection for commercially valuable phenotypes that have a complex, uncharacterized genetic basis. By using massive and rapid genetic transfers that do not require human intervention, it may be possible to rapidly create a large set of genetically diverse mutants that can then be selected for the targeted characteristics. Importantly, the approach is not limited by the significant knowledge gaps that exist about the organism. The project will initiate studies aimed at catalytically converting biomass-derived ethanol to hydrocarbons that are suited to aviation and heavy-duty applications.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.