Restructuring cyanobacterial metabolism for high-value compound production

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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.