Despite their well-recognized potential, marine bioactive molecules are still difficult to source due to a lack of controlled culturing and processing infrastructures, and their chemical synthesis is hampered by their chemical complexity. The main sources of the high-value biomolecules are corals, sponges, algae, involving industrial end-users in the medical and pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic sectors. Therefore, new approaches are urgently needed in marine biotechnology as microbial engineering has not fully met the expectations for producing the marine bioactives identified in invertebrates and seaweeds. Omics technologies have transformed the way the complexity of the marine holobiont can be viewed and today the integration of omics data such as genomics and metabolomics can increase our understanding of the functioning and processes of living organisms including their metabolic pathways. COMBO will allow the transfer of knowledge from terrestrial to marine biotechnology through the engineering of marine metabolic pathways using Omics approaches. The rationale behind COMBO lies in the power of synthetic consortia of host cells and microbial cells based on the concept of holobiont and auxotrophy. COMBO will therefore expand the potential offered by underused marine sponges and seaweeds known to produce bioactives such as terpenoids and alkaloids for the cosmetic and pharmaceutical markets
The objectives of COMBO are:
- O1 To identify and characterise hosts and associated microbiota for targeted groups of seaweeds (Dictyota and Laurencia) and sponges (Crambeidae and Haplosclerida) using integrative taxonomy - WP2 and WP4.
- O2 To develop innovative cell cultivation methods for seaweed and sponge species at cell, aquaria, and mesocosm scales and optimization of the conditions WP3
- O3 To study the co-metabolism based on auxotrophy and the identification of the secretome in WP3, WP4, and WP5.
- O4: O1, 2 and 3 will allow the elucidation the metabolic pathways of seaweed terpenoids and sponge alkaloids targeted using –omics approaches – WP2 WP3 and WP4
- O5 Develop and propose new chassis cells for marine active compounds from seaweeds and sponges. – WP5
- O6 To develop green downstream processes for the isolation of the four families of seaweed and sponge targeted active compounds using cultivation systems in WP3 and WP5 - WP6 WP7.
- O7 Screen the targeted families of metabolites for anti-inflammatory, antitumoral antimicrobial and antiaging applications – WP6.
