DEVELOPMENT OF A TECHNOLOGY FOR THE PRODUCTION OF AN ENZYME COCKTAIL WITH APPLICATION IN THE ANIMAL NUTRITION SECTOR

• Grant number: 23/16656-4
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Start date: August 01, 2024
• End date: July 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Microbiology - Applied Microbiology
• Principal Investigator: Lucas Salera Parreiras
• Grantee: Lucas Salera Parreiras
• Company: Apexzymes Biotecnologia Ltda
• CNAE: Pesquisa e desenvolvimento experimental em ciências físicas e naturais
• Pesquisadores principais: Lucas Miranda Fonseca
• Associated researchers: Larissa de Farias Viana
• Associated research grant: 20/13845-2 - Development of a microbial platform for the production of industrial enzymes, AP.PIPE

Abstract

In the current food production system, livestock uses 77% of global cultivable land and generates 50% of greenhouse gas emissions, however, it produces only 37% of proteins due to low efficiency in the process. The main challenge is to increase nutrient absorption by ruminants, which rarely exceeds 70% due to the recalcitrance of the food provided to the animal. Most of the nutritional requirements of ruminants are met through roughage, a material rich in vegetable fibers with a complex composition divided into three main structures, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, which have chemical bonds that are very difficult to break. One possibility to improve feed digestibility and, consequently, increase the animal's weight gain, is the addition of exogenous fibrolytic enzymes. In fact, it has already been demonstrated that with the addition of enzymes, increments of more than 30% in the animals' average daily weight gain are possible. However, these results are not yet replicable for the different types of roughage used to feed ruminants, which vary significantly depending on the region where the animal is raised. In some types of biomass, it has been observed that the enzymatic products currently available on the market, which are mostly formulated containing a single enzyme, xylanase, increase the speed but not the extent of hydrolysis of the ingested fiber. These results indicate that the products may not be introducing new enzymatic activities into the rumen and, therefore, would not be effectively increasing the animal's productivity. In this research project, is being proposed the development of a technology for the production of a low-cost multi-enzyme cocktail, capable of breaking down the three structures of plant fiber, thus dealing with the high variability of chemical composition and, consequently, increasing the production of meat and milk, regardless of the type of roughage used. To achieve this, a strain of filamentous fungus will be genetically modified, aiming to develop a hyper-producing platform, capable of simultaneously secreting all the necessary enzymes. Furthermore, a cultivation method for this microorganism will also be developed, using low-cost agro-industrial by-products as raw material and available in large quantities on the Brazilian market. With the aim of demonstrating the overcoming of the challenges mentioned above, the goals of the proposed project will be (i) the construction of a microorganism capable of producing 100 g/L of proteins with enzymatic activity detected in the 3 fiber fractions, (ii) increase by 20% the digestibility of vegetable fibers by the ruminal liquid in an in-vitro test, with the addition of enzymes produced by the technology developed, (iii) development of a microorganism cultivation method in which the cost of nutrients is less than 1 USD/L of the final fermentation broth and (iv) validation of the production protocol on a pilot scale with an efficiency greater than 90% in relation to the results obtained on a bench scale. The technology developed from this project could have a significant impact on the food sector, effectively reducing the cost of producing milk and beef in Brazil. (AU)