CaTSYS · Screening, characterisation and engineering of carbohydrate harvesting machineries of microbial ecosystems
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2016-09-01 → 2018-08-31
- EU contribution
- €173,076
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Screening, characterisation and engineering of carbohydrate harvesting machineries of microbial ecosystems
Gut bacteria have evolved sophisticated strategies to face the complexity and the diversity of the glycans they feed on in the intestine. In order to completely metabolize these glycans, bacteria displayed multi-proteic systems involving proteins for sensing, binding, transport and degradation. These systems are from high interest and radically transformed the way we think the biotechnological processes involved in the conversion of plant biomass and agricultural by-products into valuable synthons. To expand and harness our knowledge of these enzymatic synergies naturally displayed by bacteria to internalise and breakdown complex glycans, CaTSYS was focused on the discovery and the characterisation of multi-proteic systems involving novel CAZymes and carbohydrate binders/transporters. However, because most of the gut microbes remain uncultured, metagenomics a culture-independent method developed in the last decade to analyse the pool of genomes of microbial communities (the so-called metagenomes) is required to explore their functional diversity. CaTSYS aimed at developing new ultra-high throughput functional metagenomics approaches in order to boost the discovery and engineering of bacterial pathways involved in the metabolisation of complex glycans, and to establish the molecular bases of oligosaccharide transport and degradation in mammal gut ecosystems.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Mammals rely entirely on their symbiotic microorganisms to digest complex glycans, issued from dietary fibers, yeasts, and the host itself. To that purpose, gut bacteria have evolved sophisticated machineries to face the structural diversity and complexity of carbohydrates, consisting of gene clusters coding for carbohydrate-hydrolysing, -binding and -transporting proteins. Since the last decade, functional metagenomics has proved to be a highly powerful technique to boost the discovery of new protein families involved in these multi-proteic systems from the vast world of uncultured bacteria, which represents the majority of gut microorganisms. By using a multidisciplinary approach, integrating genomic, metagenomic, functional and structural data, CaTSYS will decipher the structure-function relationships of novel key carbohydrate active enzymes and transporters recently discovered by functional exploration of the human and bovine gut microbiomes. Their role in carbohydrate harvesting pathways will be investigated and optimised by combinatorial engineering, thanks to the development of an original high-throughput screening approach, to render heterologous hosts capable of internalising and breaking down a large diversity of complex carbohydrates. Overall, CaTSYS will provide a promising framework to overcome future challenges in biotechnology, for the conversion of carbohydrate polymers into biosourced chemicals and/or high-added value compounds.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- INSTITUT NATIONAL DES SCIENCES APPLIQUEES DE TOULOUSE · ToulouseCoordinatorFrance
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union