But the potential of this widely applicable method doesn’t stop there. Next week, at the 2019 Algae Biomass Summit in Orlando, Algenuity’s Chief Scientific Officer Alex Pudney – a specialist in strain development, metabolic engineering and synthetic biology – will be highlighting an example of the potential global impact of using directed evolution to improve algal strain characteristics for the aquaculture sector.

Directed evolution promises to benefit many algal applications, not least the aquaculture industry where the rising global population is driving demand for ever-greater productivity. Microalgae are a nutritionally important food source for fish at all stages of development, and are also used to produce the copepods that are fed to various species of marine fish. A good-quality omega-3 oil content in such fish is dependent on nutritional quality of copepods, which, in turn, is directly related to the algae they are fed. Efficient production of high-quality microalgae is therefore crucial but is affected by light and temperature, making the method – and associated costs – of such cultivation an important consideration, especially for aquaculture in challenging climates.

In a recent case study that Alex will expand on in his presentation, Algenuity produced a temperature-tolerant strain of Tisochrysis lutea , a microalga used extensively in copepod production. While T. lutea is normally cultivatable up to 32 °C, improved mutants grew productively at 35 °C. After an additional round of selection, mutants showed a ten-fold increase in biomass productivity when tested in Algem® photobioreactors under simulated light and temperature conditions for the United Arab Emirates in June, where daily temperatures can reach 39 °C/102.2 °F. Importantly, the composition of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in the algae was not adversely affected.

This work – conducted on Algenuity’s Algem® photobioreactor – demonstrates the expertise of Algenuity in the algal sector, and is the first demonstration of directed evolution in a real world scenario.

Watch this space for further developments in the project! Alternatively, to see how directed evolution could be applied to your application, contact us at info@algenuity.com.