EUROPE’S METAGENOME

Probing Europe’s Undiscovered Genome: A Metagenomics Approach to Find Unique Enzymes for the Biofuel and Bioprocessing Industries

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Our civilization is facing increasing pressures on finite natural resources, and Europe in particular faces serious challenges to its energy security. The purpose of the project is to explore Europe’s unique environments to discover novel enzymes which may support the development of viable bioenergy and other bioprocessing industries. Hydrogen has great potential as a future energy source. To make biological hydrogen production more favorable and competitive, more powerful hydrogenases needs to be discovered. Various kinds of enzymes such as lipases and cellulases are used as biocatalysts for a variety of bioprocessing industries; however there is still a strong need for new generations of these enzymes with more favorable characteristics such as stability to extremes of temperature, pressure, and pH. In this research, a metagenomics approach will be used to target the discovery of novel enzymes by exploring the world of unknown microorganisms in Europe. Finally, to fully achieve the goal of creating more powerful enzymes, directed evolution approaches will be applied. The anticipated result of this research is to discover highly effective hydrogenases, cellulases, and lipases. This project aims to provide tremendous environmental, economic, and strategic benefits and improve the quality of human life. The enzymes discovered may have a big influence and increase the competitiveness of Europe. The specific objectives of this research are to: (1) create metagenomic libraries using genomic DNA isolated directly from European water and soil samples (2) using activity based agar plate screening, discover novel hydrogenases, cellulases, and lipases (3) isolate and identify the sequences of the enzymes and clone novel ones into an expression host strain (4) explore their potential for application by evaluating their activities, substrate specificities, and stabilities at temperature and pH extremes (5) enhance the characters of isolated enzymes using directed evolution.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Researchers are harnessing the vast genetic resources of Europe's countless microbes to produce energy from renewable biological sources.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

An ever-increasing demand for energy is placing severe pressure on Europe's natural resources. The microbial world, however, has massive untapped potential as a source of novel enzymes that can be used for energy generation.

The EU-funded EUROPE'S METAGENOME (Probing Europe's Undiscovered Genome: A Metagenomics Approach to Find Unique Enzymes for the Biofuel and Bioprocessing Industries) project aimed to discover powerful new enzymes from microbes that can efficiently create energy from biological sources.

Since most microbes in the environment are unknown and unculturable, EUROPE'S METAGENOME isolated microbial communities' genetic material directly from water and soil samples. Researchers then used sophisticated genetic analyses to identify microbes with potentially useful enzymes in this genetic soup.

EUROPE'S METAGENOME evaluated the activity of three enzymes for creating bioenergy from hydrogen, plant oils and plant biomass. Hydrogenases oxidise hydrogen to release energy, lipases convert plant oils into biodiesel, and cellulases convert plant cellulose into sugars that are then fermented to produce ethanol.

Researchers improved targeted activities of these enzymes in the lab, particularly focusing on their stability at high temperatures and extreme pH. The project is now collaborating with bioprocessing industries that will use these enzymes to produce bioenergy or biosensors.

EUROPE'S METAGENOME puts Europe at the frontier of enzyme discovery and will contribute to global competitiveness in this research area.