PROPEL : PlatfoRm fOr Photosynthetic cEll cuLture

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Interest in photosynthetic cells such as microalgae and plant cells for biotechnological applications has been growing in recent years. These photosynthetic cells are able to rapidly generate biomass and macromolecules from solar energy, CO2 and water, for a wide range of potential applications. The present grant application aims to support the development of a PlatfoRm fOr Photosynthetic cEll cuLture hereafter referred to as PROPEL. PROPEL will support the diverse but complementary research programs on microalgae and plant cells, which are led by the professors I. Desgagné-Penix (IDP), T. Missihoun (TM) and H. Germain (HG) at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivères (UQTR). The much needed PROPEL platform is necessary for the NSERC-lead research programs of the three co-applicants, and will help to address very distinct questions (plant metabolism and synthetic biology, plant biochemistry and stress, plant response to biotrophic pathogen), but the basic culture and growth of photosynthetic cells used to study these questions are similar. It comprises a biosafety cabinet and four photosynthetic incubator shakers to be used for sterile photosynthetic cell culture, biomass production, growth kinetics analysis, macromolecules study, screening and bioprocessing.These will lead to important advances in plant biochemistry, metabolism and immunity. In addition to these advances, a large number of students will be trained to perform basic studies assays using PROPEL, highly transferable skills that are required for all cell biology researchers.