[SCAN] PhycoµBiome: Understanding and harnessing the power of the microalgae microbiome aiming the maximization of marine microalgae productivity

Title: PhycoµBiome: Understanding and harnessing the power of the microalgae microbiome aiming the maximization of marine microalgae productivity

Speaker: Francisco Nascimento

Abstract:  Microalgae are important CO2 sinks and sustainable biomass feedstocks for the bioenergy and bioproducts industries worldwide. These features have attracted great interest in the industrial cultivation and exploitation of several microalgae, including marine microalgae such _Phaeodactylum__ tricornutum or Nannochloropsis oceanica_ that___ _are able to synthesize important and valuable compounds used in a wide range of biotechnological applications. Nevertheless, the industrial production of these microalgae faces several challenges. Under large-scale production facilities microalgae are i) susceptible to environmental stress conditions  ii) microalgae are mostly cultivated devoid of their natural microbiota, and are posteriorly impacted by non-specific contaminants and pathogens from the environment, which decreases overall microalgae productivity. Moreover, not much is understood about the factors that lead to the synthesis and accumulation bioactive compounds by ___N. oceanica_ and ___P. tricornutum. _All these factors___ _lead to a decrease in microalgae productivity and negatively impact their production costs.

One way to address these challenges may reside on the efficient use of beneficial microalgae-associated bacteria. In this sense, beneficial symbiotic and mutualistic members of the microbiome can promote microalgae growth and production of bioactive compounds, through a variety of beneficial syntrophic relationships as well as the modulation of microalgae developmental programs. Despite the known beneficial properties of some members of the microalgae microbiome, not much is understood about the microbiome assembly of relevant microalgae such as ___P__.__ tricornutum_ and _N__.__ oceanica_ or under natural or large-scale industrial production facilities, nor the molecular mechanisms involved in beneficial microalgae-bacteria interactions.

Moreover, there is a lack of co-inoculation strategies aiming at increasing microalgae productivity in large scale production facilities.

  The Phyco-µ-biome project aims to study the microbiome (at both ecologic and functional levels) of the marine when grown in natural Portuguese waters, and, in the ALGATEC industrial facilities in Portugal___;_ to gain new insights into the mechanisms governing algae-bacteria interactions, and, finally, to develop co-inoculation strategies to potentiate microalgae productivity (biomass and valuable compounds) under laboratory and industrial conditions.