AQUA 2024

August 26 - 30, 2024

Copenhagen, Denmark

MICROALGAE STRAIN OPTIMIZATION BY CONTINUOUS SELECTION PRESSURE: A FOCUS ON OMEGA 3 AND PIGMENT OVERPRODUCTION

Hubert Bonnefond*, Charlotte Gaviard, Alice Guillet, Eric provost, Amélie Talec, Antoine Sciandra, Olivier Bernard

* DareWin Evolution Station zoologique 181 chemin du lazaret 06230 Villefranche sur mer - France. hubert.bonnefond@darewinevolution.com

 



DareWin Evolution offers natural and robust selection methods as a viable and complementary alternatives to genetically modified organism (GMO) techniques for optimizing microalgae strains for the production of molecules of interest in microalgal industry.

In partnership with famous French laboratory (Inria, CNRS and Sorbonne University) and based on 10 years of dedicated works, our team developed new approaches mixing Darwinian selection theory and specific algorithms in a unique photobioreactor to refine new selection methodologies, yielding particularly promising outcomes. In details, Darwinian dynamic selection process involves applying adjustable selection pressure of increasing intensity to a population maintained in a continuous system. In this setup, individuals most able to adapt, with improved traits of interest, gradually emerge, dominate, and persist. Selection pressure is applied using numerical approaches to maximise the selection efficiency.

DareWin Evolution has successfully implemented its selection protocols across a wide range of fresh and marine microalgae species, achieving improvements in various characteristics. After 6 months of selection, our proof-of-concept results demonstrate the feasibility of enhancing temperature tolerance, doubling productivity, increasing the content of certain carotenoids by more than 2, and boosting omega-3 (DHA) content (x6) for both autotrophic and heterotrophic strains, highlighting the versatility and efficacy of our approach (see fig).