Project description
Omega-3 fatty acids for sustainable aquaculture
Omega-3 fatty acids are essential nutrients critical for brain development, cardiovascular health, and aquaculture feed. Global supply currently depends almost entirely on fish oil from wild fisheries. However, given that aquaculture demand is rapidly growing, sustainable sources of omega-3 fatty acids are urgently required. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the TARGET-OMEGA project develops microbial alternatives by engineering thraustochytrids, marine microorganisms that naturally produce high levels of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA. Using CRISPR-based genome editing, researchers will enhance DHA production by characterising and manipulating the genetic networks that regulate its synthesis. This is expected to lead to a sustainable biotechnological solution to replace fish oil in aquaculture feed.
Objective
Fatty acids are essential nutrients that serve as an energy source and support critical biological functions, including brain development and cardiovascular health. Among these, ω-3 fatty acids are indispensable for both human nutrition and aquaculture feed, and currently relies on fish oil derived from wild fisheries; a limited resource already stretched to capacity. With salmon farming alone consuming 60% of global fish oil supplies and demand growing at 7.9% annually, the aquaculture industry faces an urgent sustainability crisis. The proposed project TARGET-ω addresses this challenge through an innovative microbial solution. Thraustochytrids, particularly Aurantiochytrium limacinum, naturally produce high levels of DHA (16 g/L reported); offering a promising fish oil alternative. However, DHA production is regulated by several abiotic factors, oxygen and nitrogen being the most important. While metabolic genes differentially regulated by these factors are identified, the transcriptional network connecting them to DHA production remains uncharacterized. TARGET-ω aims to unlock the full potential of thraustochytrid DHA production by identifying the transcriptional regulation of DHA production in response to oxygen deprivation, followed by marker-free CRISPR based engineering to generate improved strains. Thus, TARGET- ω is part of a chain of projects striving to attain high yielding microbial platforms. This project will give me the opportunity to apply my previous knowledge of CRISPR technology and to gain new expertise in integrating system and synthetic biology tools. Furthermore, my supervisors at the Norwegian University of Science in Technology (NTNU) provide interdisciplinary expertise within industrial microbiology (Prof. Ertesvåg) and lipidomics (Prof. Bruheim) which is essential for the accomplishment of the project goals.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries fisheries
- medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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7491 Trondheim
Norway
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