Transcriptional regulation of ω-3 fatty acid production in thraustochytrids

Descripción del proyecto

Ácidos grasos omega-3 para lograr una acuicultura sostenible

Los ácidos grasos omega-3 son nutrientes esenciales, fundamentales para el desarrollo cerebral, la salud cardiovascular y la alimentación en la acuicultura. Actualmente, el suministro mundial depende casi por completo del aceite de pescado procedente de pesquerías extractivas. Sin embargo, dado que la demanda de la acuicultura está creciendo rápidamente, se necesitan con urgencia fuentes sostenibles de ácidos grasos omega-3. Con el apoyo de las acciones Marie Skłodowska-Curie, el proyecto TARGET-OMEGA desarrolla alternativas microbianas mediante la ingeniería de traustocítridos, microorganismos marinos que producen de forma natural altos niveles del ácido graso omega-3 DHA. Mediante la edición del genoma basada en CRISPR, los investigadores mejorarán la producción de DHA caracterizando y manipulando las redes genéticas que regulan su síntesis. Se prevé que esto conduzca a una solución biotecnológica sostenible para sustituir el aceite de pescado en la alimentación acuícola.

Objetivo

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.