I-Corps: Eliminating Livestock Methane Emissions through Plant Biotechnology

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发玉米和高粱等农作物，将其用作减少农场动物甲烷排放的饲料。甲烷是一种温室气体，其强度是二氧化碳的84倍，来自畜牧业的甲烷是最大的单一来源，占全球温室气体总量的5%。目前，肉类和乳制品公司与领先的科学家、政府和非政府组织结盟，确定甲烷减少是快速气候结果的关键。然而，目前的技术无法规模化地实现这些目标。最近的创新，如饲料添加剂，需要建设新的基础设施来生产和交付。农民被要求为使用复杂且无利可图的新产品买单。这项拟议的技术利用现有的农业系统种植饲料作物，并将其大规模运送到农场，通过在动物饲料中替代甲烷减少作物来减少甲烷。这可能会让肉类和乳制品生产公司实现他们的可持续发展目标。这个i-Corps项目是基于一种转基因生物合成途径的开发，这种途径允许植物产生抗甲烷化合物。这项拟议的技术使陆地植物能够产生溴仿，一种天然存在于海藻、蓝藻和浮游植物中的分子。溴仿和含溴仿海藻现在已被公认为是一种治疗方法，在饲料中加入后，几乎可以消除牲畜的所有肠道甲烷排放。研究结果表明，用这项技术创造的模式植物和作物在正常条件下生长时会自我合成少量的这些化合物，使收获的产品可以直接用于动物饲料，而不需要进一步的添加剂或加工来消除甲烷。此外，通常在外来和难以生长的热带海藻中发现的一种抗甲烷化合物，在植物种子中产生的量是抵消98%以上牛甲烷排放所需量的20倍。此外，拟议的技术还包括稳定和增强多种抗甲烷化合物输送的方法，使它们更适合在农场的现实世界中使用。这项技术表明，对常见农作物进行改造可能是减少家畜甲烷排放的一种可行、实用的方法。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/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of agricultural crops such as corn and sorghum when used as feed that reduce methane emissions from farm animals. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is eighty-four times stronger than CO2, and methane from animal agriculture is the largest single source, accounting for 5% of total greenhouse gases worldwide. Currently, meat and dairy corporations are aligned with leading scientists, governments, and non-governmental organizations in identifying methane reduction as the key to rapid climate results. However, current technology cannot meet these goals at scale. Recent innovations such as feed additives, require construction of new infrastructure to produce and deliver. Farmers are asked to pay for new products that are complicated to use and unprofitable. The proposed technology uses the existing agricultural system to grow and deliver feed crops to reach farms at massive scale, allowing methane reduction by substituting methane reducing crops in animal feed. This may allow meat- and dairy-producing companies to meet their sustainability goals.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a transgenic biosynthesis pathway that allows plants to produce anti-methane compounds. The proposed technology enables land plants to produce bromoform, a molecule that is naturally found in seaweeds, cyanobacteria, and phytoplankton. Bromoform and bromoform-bearing seaweeds are now well-established as treatments that can eliminate nearly all enteric methane emissions from livestock when incorporated in feed. Research results demonstrate that model plants and crops created with this technology self-synthesize small amounts of these compounds while growing under normal conditions, allowing the harvested products to be directly used for animal feed with no further additives or processing needed to eliminate methane. Further, an anti-methane compound normally found in exotic and hard-to-grow tropical seaweeds was produced in plant seeds at 20 times the amount needed to offset more than 98% of cattle methane emissions. In addition, the proposed technology includes methods to stabilize and enhance the delivery of multiple anti-methane compounds, making them more suitable for real-world use on farms. This technology suggests that modifications to common crop plants may be a viable, practical means of reducing methane emissions from livestock.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.