D1.5 delivers a set of 1st generation cell factories, which are C. glutamicum strains with genetic modules for (i) production an antimicrobial peptide (AMP), (ii) ability to utilize one of the sugars present in seaweed hydrolysates and (iii) expression of a fluorescent protein (FP). Strains will be designed in a way that each strain harbours genes for utilization of one sugar (U-brick) and a corresponding FP (QR-brick) to allow specific detection. U- and QR-bricks will be integrated into the chromosome replacing the non-essential genes actA (for U-bricks) or cg0822 (for QR-bricks). All strains will be equipped with the same genes for AMP production (P-brick), which will be encoded on a plasmid for efficient expression.
D1. 6 is the public version of D1. 3. Strains carrying U-bricks for utilization of mannitol (man), xylose (xyl), and arabinose (ara) were improved based of the 1st gen strains and the 2nd gen strains fulfilled the required criteria. Strains for utilization of guluronic and mannuronic acid could not be constructed, which turned out to be hardly relevant in the context of iCULTURE as detailed here. A technical limitation that slowed strain development activities has been partly overcome. While the consortium as a whole has access to analytics for guluronic and mannuronic acid in the biotechnology department of NTNU, none of the other partners has these capabilities on-site, which hinders strain construction. Secondly, a thorough literature research did not yield genes of established pathways for utilization of guluronic and mannuronic acid in any organism. Our own work established C. glutamicum strains able to grow with the related glucuronic acid, however, this strain was not able to utilize guluronic and mannuronic acid present in alginate hydrolysate supplemented as carbon source. Hitherto, bioinformatic searches for related genes sequences has not provided suitable gene candidates. Meanwhile, the coordinator NTNU provided new data on the occurrence of guluronic and mannuronic acid in algal hydrolysates well below relevant concentrations, thus, reducing the impact of constructing strains able to utilize guluronic and mannuronic acid.
This deliverable describes the plan and strategy for the Dissemination, Communication and Exploitation of results, as well as the specific activities and tools that will be implemented by the iCULTURE throughout the entire lifetime of the project. This strategy contains a variety of information meant to guide iCULTURE partners in conveying contents and messages targeted to specific audiences while adhering to the established strategy. Partners are welcome and encouraged to use this information in their communication efforts and to involve Dissemination and Exploitation leader (NTNU) and Communication leader (FVA) when organising/participating in Dissemination, Communication and Exploitation activities. In addition, the partners responsible for Dissemination and Exploitation, namely NTNU, and Communication, namely FVA, will assist and support the partners in their activities connected to this aspect. The strategy will be constantly revised and updated to follow the evolution of the project.
The iCulture project operates in two main data-generating programs: Firstly, it intends to run a large set of co-culture fermentation. This part will generate fermentation data and dynamic models of control and estimation. Secondly, it intends to gather large amount of seaweed data,
such as species, compositions, locations, etc. This part will include a database, machine learning (ML) models and their resulted outputs. These two segments have traditionally different data deposit sources, but both will comply with FAIR principles.