Tolerate: Partners' Meeting (Denmark)

Second Consortium Meeting in Denmark

The partners of Project Tolerate recently gathered in Denmark for the second consortium meeting, marking a significant milestone in this pioneering endeavor. This collaborative project, led by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), leverages a unique collection of paleo-environmental samples, particularly frozen Arctic soils and sediments. These samples, harboring ancient DNA (aDNA) metagenomes that extend back up to a million years, are key to understanding how rhizosphere biodiversity and functionality have historically responded to climate changes and extreme events.

Exploring the Ancient Metagenomes

The preliminary metagenomic data from these samples suggest a treasure trove of archaic DNA, representing a timeline of evolutionary adaptations to climate change within the rhizosphere. The core aim of Project Tolerate is to reconstruct and analyze these ancient metagenomes, correlating the findings with historical climatic data to pinpoint molecular adaptations that confer climate tolerance. Specifically, the project seeks to uncover genetic traits that enable resistance to increased temperatures and drought conditions.

Key Applications and Innovations

The insights gained from these ancient metagenomes will be instrumental in several cutting-edge applications:

1. Engineering Climate-Resilient Bacteria:

   • Objective: Produce and test engineered root-colonizing bacteria, such as Pseudomonas fluorescens and Pseudomonas chlororaphis.
   • Outcome: Enhance plant climate tolerance by promoting the production of humidifying polysaccharides around roots, facilitating growth on marginal agricultural land (MAL).

2. Ancestral Reconstruction for Industrial Applications:

   • Objective: Inform the development of thermostable and cold-tolerant enzymes.
   • Outcome: Create robust enzymes for industrial use, leveraging ancient evolutionary strategies for modern applications.

3. Bioproduction and Industrial Relevance:

   • Objective: Engineer Pseudomonas putida strains for bioproduction of climate-tolerant biomolecules, such as humidifying polysaccharides and biosurfactant betaines.
   • Outcome: Target the biotechnological production of these molecules for use in 3D-printed organ-on-chip models, drug delivery systems, metalworking fluids, lubricants, and industrial cleaning products.

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment by Omnia

Omnia is responsible for conducting the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) for Project Tolerate. This comprehensive analysis includes:

• Sustainability and Economic Analyses:

  • A light-touch sustainability and economic analysis will be performed, sufficient for the project's fermentation and downstream processing (DSP) activities.
  • Data will be gathered to enable extrapolation to higher-scale production, focusing on energy, water use, and DSP parameters to identify areas requiring further optimization.

• Environmental Impact Indicators:

  • Environmental impact will be assessed via Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), following the Product Environmental Footprint method recommended by the European Commission.

• Economic Indicators:

  • Techno-economic analysis will estimate capital expenditures (CAPEX), operating expenses (OPEX), and financial costs.

• Social Dimension:

  • The social impact will be assessed through the Job Creation Potential (JCP) indicator, utilizing methodologies established by Pillain et al.

Assessment Steps:

1. Goal and Scope Definition:

   • Define common aspects among LCA, techno-economic analysis, and JCP assessments.

2. Data Inventory:

   • Collect data from lab and pilot tests and secondary sources to create comprehensive models.

3. Impact Assessments:

   • Select methods for each sustainability pillar, value chain, and scenario to perform impact assessments.

4. Result Interpretation:

   • Identify hotspots, potential benefits, gaps, limitations, and challenges. Parametrized models will facilitate fast comparative analysis for decision-making.

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For more information about the project visit the Projects’ Section.