Researchers believe yeast with salt-tolerant properties could be the future of green agriculture, reducing harmful nutrient runoffs, energy consumption, and other pollution from the sector.
José Martinez, a bioengineering associate professor at the Technical University of Denmark, told Smart Water Magazine that the yeast cell Debaryomyces hansenii, or D. hansenii, grows beautifully in high-salinity environments, even those six times saltier than seawater.
This realization led to a breakthrough that could revolutionize how the agriculture industry deals with waste, with a gene-edited version of D. hansenii able to produce many different types of proteins when cultivated in saline waste streams.Â
In addition to potentially cutting costs for businesses, the low-cost, low-energy method could open the door for food production in steel tanks, meaning the wastewater wouldn't have the opportunity to enter the environment and potentially lead to harmful imbalance.
According to Martinez, the project began to take shape after he connected with Arla Foods and Novo Nordisk specialist Manuel Quirós, and he and Quirós began experimenting with D. hansenii in a nitrogen-packed salty residue from Novo Nordisk.
"We simply mixed the two saline waste streams — the one with a high lactose content and the one with a high nitrogen content. We used them as they were," Martinez told Smart Water Magazine. "We didn't need to add fresh water, nor did we need to sterilize the fermentation tank, because the salt prevented the growth of other microorganisms. It was plug and play."
The results were a success; however, as Martinez explained to the magazine, for the study to draw more interest, the project needed a path toward commercialization.
That's how CRISPR, a gene-editing technology, came into the picture. It has already led to numerous breakthroughs that could protect our food supply from the effects of rising global temperatures — from potentially avian flu-resistant chickens to drought-tolerant tomatoes. Other types of gene-editing work have even created stronger wood without toxic chemical treatments.
In the case of D. hansenii, the research team initially used a fluorescent protein to monitor the genetically modified yeast cells' production, and they found that waste streams two times saltier than seawater, with a sugar content of 12 grams per liter, had the most optimal results.
While the findings were promising — potentially creating a path to similarly grown proteins such as milk alternatives, artificial meats, and other enzymes — Smart Water Magazine noted that this method is probably at least a decade from any meaningful commercial application.
Previous tests only grew yeast cells in 1-5 liters of waste streams, and the research team now plans to experiment with 10-30 liters at a time. According to the report, commercial production would require scaling up to thousands of liters.
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