Sandia Labs FY22 Laboratory Directed Research & Development Annual Report

FY22 ANNUAL REPORT

USING PHAGE-BASED, SPECIES- SPECIFIC EDITING OF THE ALGAE MICROBIOME TO IMPROVE ECONOMIC VIABILITY OF ALGAE GROWTH AS FEEDSTOCK. The major challenge with using algae as a feedstock is growing it economically, which hinges strongly on the ability to prevent pond crashes due to biotic factors, like bacteria. Phages, the viruses of bacteria, offer an unexplored solution to this problem. In contrast to antibiotics, phages are typically species-specific and might be used to rescue pathogen-infected cultivations without affecting the native microbiome. To test this idea, Sandia identified a highly virulent pathogen of an elite algae strain and showed that phages rescue the algae culture from the pathogen. The next step showed that algae lacking a microbiome are more susceptible to the pathogen. Finally, the microbiome was moved from the control algae to the culture lacking a microbiome, showing that the transplanted microbiome restores the protective effects against the pathogen. In summary, there were two countermeasures identified that can be used to improve resilience and increase productivity of algal biomanufacturing systems. (PI: Jesse Cahill)

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