I-Corps: Eliminating Livestock Methane Emissions through Plant Biotechnology

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发玉米和高粱等农作物，用作饲料，减少农场动物的甲烷排放。甲烷是一种比二氧化碳强84倍的温室气体，畜牧业产生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、政府和非政府组织保持一致，将减少甲烷作为快速气候变化的关键。然而，目前的技术无法大规模实现这些目标。饲料添加剂等最新创新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付费。该技术利用现有的农业系统种植和输送饲料作物，大规模地到达农场，通过在动物饲料中替代甲烷减少作物来减少甲烷。 这可能使肉类和乳制品生产公司实现其可持续发展目标。I-Corps项目的基础是开发一种转基因生物合成途径，使植物能够产生抗甲烷化合物。 拟议的技术使陆地植物能够产生溴仿，这是一种天然存在于海藻、蓝细菌和浮游植物中的分子。溴仿和含溴仿的海藻现在已经被公认为是一种治疗方法，当掺入饲料中时，可以消除牲畜几乎所有的肠道甲烷排放。 研究结果表明，利用该技术创造的模式植物和作物在正常条件下生长时，可以自行合成少量的这些化合物，从而使收获的产品可以直接用于动物饲料，而无需进一步添加剂或加工来消除甲烷。此外，一种通常在外来和难以生长的热带海藻中发现的抗甲烷化合物在植物种子中产生，其数量是抵消98%以上的牛甲烷排放所需数量的20倍。此外，拟议的技术包括稳定和增强多种抗甲烷化合物的方法，使其更适合在农场的实际使用。这项技术表明，对普通作物的改造可能是减少牲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 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.