Harnessing the power of soda lake microbial mats for CO2 capture and conversion

利用苏打湖微生物垫的力量来捕获和转化二氧化碳

• 批准号: RGPIN-2020-03947
• 负责人: Strous, Marc
• 金额: $ 2.91万
• 依托单位: University of Calgary
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=739582
• 关键词: Harnessing; power; soda; lake; microbial

Soda lakes are among the most alkaline aquatic environments on earth and among the most productive ecosystems known. High pH, high salinity, and extensive free radical activity lead to extreme conditions for survival of aquatic life. At the same time, a virtually endless supply of bicarbonate enables active photosynthesis by microbial mats - complex multi-layered microbial communities similar to ancient stromatolites or thrombolites. Soda lakes are distributed all over the world and Canada is home to some of those. Recently, my team compared microbial mats from Canadian soda lakes - Cariboo Pateau, BC - to Asian soda lakes on the Kulunda steppe, Mongolia. Metagenomics analyses showed that these distant ecosystems share a common ecological blueprint, a similar microbial community. Apparently, nature has come up with a single solution for this ecosystem - a community structure that is both productive and robust in an extreme and dynamic environment. My aim is to use that blueprint to realize a technically and economically feasible bio-process, powered by the sun, for direct-air-capture and conversion of CO2 into bio-energy. This year, we have been able to take the research to pilot-scale. The installation features >300 m of transparent pipes and a total volume of almost 1,000 L. It was seeded with the Canadian soda lake microbiome and operated successfully for 140 days in the Alberta outdoor environment, demonstrating both robustness and productivity. Making use of natural processes occurring in soda lake sediments, my team discovered how to bio-refine the produced biomass into methane and phyocyanin, a valuable natural product. These positive results have propelled the program into a critical stage, with a spin off company, Synergia Biotech, incorporated recently. It was selected into the Creative Destruction Lab, a Canada-wide program that provides business mentorship and access to investors. Scale up and commercialization are becoming a real possibility. My Discovery Program supports this development by addressing the fundamental ecology of the system with cutting edge -omics approaches: (i) how do the microbes performing photosynthesis cope with predation by protists and viruses? (ii) do they depend on known defenses such as CRISPR-Cas systems? (iii) do they diversify to escape predation? (iv) how much carbon is lost by interactions between phototrophs and heterotrophs? (v) Can Loki-archaea, enigmatic microbes abundant in soda lake sediments, be used to further improve bio-refining? This research will answer fundamental questions on robustness and productivity in microbial ecology. It supports development of technology for mitigating CO2 emissions and production of a high-value natural product, directly contributing to Canada's green energy portfolio and economy.

苏打湖是地球上碱性最强的水生环境之一，也是已知生产力最高的生态系统之一。高 pH 值、高盐度和广泛的自由基活性导致水生生物生存的极端条件。与此同时，几乎源源不断的碳酸氢盐供应使得微生物垫能够进行活跃的光合作用——类似于古代叠层石或凝块石的复杂的多层微生物群落。苏打湖分布在世界各地，加拿大是其中一些苏打湖的所在地。最近，我的团队将加拿大苏打湖（不列颠哥伦比亚省卡里布帕托）的微生物垫与蒙古库伦达草原上的亚洲苏打湖进行了比较。宏基因组学分析表明，这些遥远的生态系统拥有共同的生态蓝图，即相似的微生物群落。显然，大自然为这个生态系统提供了一个单一的解决方案——在极端和动态的环境中既富有成效又稳健的群落结构。我的目标是利用该蓝图实现技术上和经济上可行的生物过程，以太阳能为动力，直接捕获空气并将二氧化碳转化为生物能源。今年，我们已经能够将这项研究进行试点。该装置具有超过 300 m 的透明管道，总体积近 1,000 L。它接种了加拿大苏打湖微生物组，并在阿尔伯塔省户外环境中成功运行了 140 天，展示了稳健性和生产力。利用苏打湖沉积物中发生的自然过程，我的团队发现了如何将产生的生物质生物精炼成甲烷和藻蓝蛋白（一种有价值的天然产品）。这些积极成果推动该计划进入关键阶段，最近成立了一家分拆公司 Synergia Biotech。它被选入创意破坏实验室，这是一个加拿大范围内的计划，旨在提供商业指导和接触投资者。规模化和商业化正在成为现实。我的发现计划通过利用尖端组学方法解决系统的基本生态学问题来支持这一发展：（i）进行光合作用的微生物如何应对原生生物和病毒的捕食？ (ii) 它们是否依赖于已知的防御，例如 CRISPR-Cas 系统？ (iii) 它们是否通过多样化来逃避捕食？ (iv) 光养生物和异养生物之间的相互作用损失了多少碳？ (v) 苏打湖沉积物中富含的神秘微生物 Loki-archaea 能否用于进一步改进生物精炼？这项研究将回答有关微生物生态学稳健性和生产力的基本问题。它支持减少二氧化碳排放的技术开发和高价值天然产品的生产，直接为加拿大的绿色能源组合和经济做出贡献。