Grant: Alliance Grants

While Canada already grows the crops, its economy would benefit if more value is added before export. Significant value can be added to agricultural outputs by biocatalytic conversion. However, the cost-to-benefit ratio has up until now, precluded application of such processes to most of Canada's lower value agricultural commodities because enzymes remain too inefficient. Overcoming this hurdle will allow us to add that value, growing our markets, strengthening our economy, creating more jobs and growing Canadian businesses. Herein, we propose to apply state-of-the-art synthetic biology technology to develop an industrial biocatalytic system for application to the sustainable removal of undesirable anti-nutritional/palatability factors during the processing of meals. Indeed, on the side of animal husbandry, where life is short and weight gain is king, tannins serve only to reduce feeding and nutrient absorption. This leads to reduced animal weights, particularly for monogastrics. As such any biomass or meals which contain tannins (such as pulse meals) are problematic in feed, limiting their applicability and value. However, an emerging bio-based technology termed 'genetic code expansion' (GCE), is poised to dramatically expand the potential of precision engineering of biocatalysts with a breadth of specificities, stabilities and efficiencies far beyond what current biology can affect. This project will see biocatalytic components of microbial tannin degradation pathways targeted for optimization by GCE. Incorporated synthetic biochemistries will test the potential to use GCE to enhance catalytic activities and stability of the enzymes. Derived GCE-optimized biocatalysts will be tested against various biomass, including pulse meal and canola extracts, for their ability to degrade tannins in combination with other fermentative and enzymatic processes. Finally, improved nutrient absorption profiles of the derived products will be demonstrated by in vitro (cell and tissue) bioassays. Potential outcomes of this project include knowledge about the potential of GCE chemistries to enable engineering of significantly more efficient biocatalysts as well as prototype biocatalysts and bioprocesses for the removal of tannins from biomass.