Restructuring cyanobacterial metabolism for high-value compound production

环境可持续性和经济增长必须协调一致，以便在气候变化时期实现稳定繁荣。对蓝绿藻（蓝藻）基因活性的操纵提供了直接从阳光、水和二氧化碳中生产能源和材料的可能性，直接有助于更全面的粮食生产模式、创新的生物产品和可靠的生物能源解决方案，从而减少人类的碳排放。螺旋藻蓝细菌作为营养资源和增值产品的来源而被广泛栽培，所述增值产品包括维生素A-E、各种萜烯、聚酯、γ-亚油酸、β-胡萝卜素和脂肪酸。然而，我们目前无法操纵螺旋藻中的遗传学，这是通过中心代谢途径优化代谢通量和编程这些途径以在工业规模上生产用户定义的产品的障碍。 该研究项目将开发克服这些瓶颈的工具和方法。作为实验过程的一部分，我们将应用尖端的基因组编辑技术来功能性地表征生物体中的每个基因。由此产生的信息将用于提高螺旋藻的光合速率，并合理地重新定向代谢流，以生产优化的菌株，用于通过直接基因工程或鉴定天然存在的遗传变异来过度生产高价值产品。 这将允许构建可以产生复杂有机分子和平台化学品的工程菌株。整个工作将与一家公司密切合作，该公司建造和运营工业生物反应器，用于螺旋藻的大规模生长，为研究成果提供市场途径，同时直接有助于培训在新兴的加拿大生物经济中寻求就业的高素质人员。

Environmental sustainability and economic growth must be harmonized for stable prosperity in a time of climate change. The manipulation of gene activity in blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) offers the possibility of producing energy and materials directly from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide, contributing directly to more holistic modes of food production, innovative bioproducts and reliable bioenergy solutions that reduce human carbon emissions. Spirulina cyanobacteria are widely cultivated as a source of nutritional resources and value-added products including vitamins A-E, various terpenes, poly-esters, gamma-linoleic acid, beta-carotene and fatty-acids. However, our current inability to manipulate genetics in Spirulina is a barrier to both optimizing metabolic flux through central metabolic pathways and programming these pathways for the production of user defined products at industrial scales. This research project will develop tools and methods to overcome these bottlenecks. As part of the experimental process we will apply cutting-edge genome editing technology to functionally characterize every gene in the organism. The resulting information will be used to increase Spirulina's photosynthetic rate and rationally redirect metabolic flux to produce strains optimized for overproduction of high-value products, either through direct genetic engineering or the identification of naturally occurring genetic variants. This will allow the construction of engineered strains that can produce complex organic molecules and platform chemicals. The entire work effort will be conducted in close collaboration with a company that builds and operates industrial bioreactors for large-scale growth of Spirulina providing a path to market for research outcomes while contributing directly to training highly qualified personnel pursuing employment in the emerging Canadian bioeconomy.