Nutritional Profile Optimisation of CO2 Fixing Bacteria Strains by Molecular Engineering

Deep Branch Biotechnology Ltd (DBB) owns a library of CO2 fixing bacteria strains that can recycle industrial CO2 waste emissions, via gas fermentation, to ultimately produce a protein source. This protein source delivers a more sustainable alternative feedstock component for aquaculture and livestock compared to currently available protein sources, such as soy and fishmeal. Optimising the properties of DBB strains such as substrate utilisation, nutritional quality and protein yield, at an industrial scale confers advantageous improvements to product value and process efficiency. However, to manipulate DBB strains to execute such strain improvements, a back to basics approach must be applied due to the lack of pre-existing molecular tools available to engineer DBB strains. Hence, the main objectives of the project involve the establishment of an effective molecular gene system to facilitate strain engineering and accordingly harness the system derived to principally focus on the successful optimisation of DBB strain nutritional profiles. The potential for extension to encompass optimisation of protein yield and alternative products may be additionally considered during project progression.