Microbial degradation of oil palm empty fruit bunches as feed for insect larvae

粮食安全是一个全球性的挑战，人们正在寻求各种替代蛋白质的方法来填补动物饲料需求的缺口。我们的案例合作伙伴FERA正在开发大规模饲养昆虫的创新技术，为单胃饲养的动物提供安全的蛋白质来源。黑兵蝇(Black Soldier Fly，BSF)是一种腐食性昆虫，即以腐烂的有机物为食，是一种非害虫，不携带和传播疾病。因此，它的幼虫非常适合作为动物饲料进行养殖。该项目旨在通过开发未开发的丰富农业残留物作为饲养BSF幼虫的饲料来改变现有的倡议。分解作物残渣，如油棕榈残渣，可能是BSF幼虫的极好食物来源，这些幼虫被认为主要以降解植物细胞壁中的木质纤维素的微生物为食。该项目建立在大量先前工作的基础上，我们一直在使用组学技术从堆肥微生物群落中识别新的木质纤维素处理系统。目标是使用这些组学技术来优化微生物群落的降解，并利用它们的代谢功能高效地生产消化的作物残留物作为昆虫的饲料。具体地说：1.寻找高效的生物质消化微生物堆肥群落。描述群落水平的新陈代谢，并确定有效分解木质纤维素所需的基本物种和分泌蛋白质3。表征用于生物精炼应用的可促进木质纤维素降解的新型酶的活性。评估消化后的作物残渣作为BSF幼虫的饲料。同时，FERA将进行基础研究，以更好地了解BSF幼虫将作物残渣最佳转化为昆虫生物量的营养需求。

Food security is a global challenge and various alternative protein approaches are being pursued to fill the gap in demand for animal feed. Our CASE partner, Fera are developing innovative for the mass rearing of insects to provide a safe source of protein for mono-gastric farmed animals. The Black Soldier Fly (BSF) is a saprophagous insect, i.e. feeds on decaying organic matter, is a non-pest, and does not carry and transmissible diseases. Its larvae are, therefore, ideal to farm as animal feed. This project aims to transform existing initiatives through the exploitation of untapped abundant agricultural residues as feed for rearing BSF larvae for animal feed. Decomposing crop residues, such oil palm residues, are potentially an excellent food source for BSF larvae, which are thought to mainly feed on the microbes degrading the lignocellulose in the plant cell walls.The project builds on a considerable body of prior work where we have been using 'omics techniques to identify new lignocellulose processing systems from composting microbial communities. The goal is to use these 'omics techniques to optimise microbial community degradation and harness their metabolic functionality for efficient production of digested crop residues as feed for insects. Specifically:1. To discover highly performing microbial compost communities for biomass digestion2. To characterise the community-level metabolism and identify the essential species and secreted proteins required for efficient lignocellulose deconstruction3. To characterise the novel enzyme activities that enhance lignocellulose degradation forbiorefining applications4. Evaluate digested crop residues as feed for BSF larvae.In parallel, Fera will be conducting underpinning research to improve understanding of the nutritional requirements of BSF larvae for optimal conversion of crop residues to insect biomass.