Microbial proteins: Moving from feed to food applications aided by proteomics and bioinformatics

Description

Fermentation of bacteria has within the last decade received an increasing amount of attention as a sustainable production method for feed protein. In particular, the use of methanotrophic bacteria such as Methylcoccus capsulatus has been shown to be an excellent example of how microbial fermentation can convert greenhouse gasses such as methane into a highly valuable resource. The resulting biomass has a very high protein content as well as an excellent nutritional profile and, importantly, can be produced in a scalable and financially profitable manner. The application of this protein-rich biomass in foods or food ingredients remain largely unexplored, but could be a potential part of the solution for higher global demand of sustainable protein. A critical aspect in the applicability is the modest characterization of the protein-level functionality and how processing affect the proteins and their properties on both the bulk and the molecular level.
In this work, we show how applying a combination of proteomics and bioinformatic analysis is an extremely powerful tool for addressing these questions. Performing deep proteome characterization using LC-MS/MS-based proteomics, we have been able to quantitatively identify the most abundant proteins in the crude fermented biomass. By applying novel bioinformatic tools, we have subsequently been able to identify embedded peptides with desirable functional properties. Using in vitro assays, we were indeed able to verify that the biomass is a source of proteins with embedded peptides displaying emulsifying and antioxidant properties. Through sequence analysis, we show how the peptides may be obtainable using targeted, enzymatic hydrolysis. Lastly, we demonstrate how combining existing protein annotation and bioinformatic prediction of subcellular localization can be applied for evaluating lab- and pilot scale cell lysis and protein extraction efficiency as well as the protein level effects of downstream processing.

Period	18 Nov 2021
Event title	2nd International Conference on Microbial Food and Feed Ingredients
Event type	Conference
Location	Copenhagen, DenmarkShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International