Today, the open access journal BMC Biotechnology published a collaborative study between EVOLUGATE, LLC (www.evolugate.com) and scientists at the University of Florida that discloses the first use of a new technology to experimentally evolve industrially important filamentous fungi, which are among the most widely used microorganisms for industrial applications. In this case, the goal was to evolve improved "green" bio-pesticides.
The publication of this report coincides with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, who discovered the process of evolution by natural selection. The Evolugate technology exploits the power of Darwinian evolution to select for strains that reproduce faster than their competitors in continuous culture.
While the concept behind the technology is not new, its innovative solutions to intractable problems associated with continuous culture make it a breakthrough in experimental evolution. Previously developed methods of continuous culture are either manually intensive, carry with them a high risk of contamination or invariably select for traits that allow microbes to evade selective pressures rather than adapt to them. This new technology is fully automated and allows experimental evolution to be run indefinitely with little risk of contamination and no risk of incidental selection for undesirable traits.
EVOLUGATE will promote and market the use of its technology for the production of novel bioinsecticides under the name ENTOVIA, a newly created division exclusively dedicated to that purpose.
However, microorganisms are essential players in a variety of other industries. Evolugate technology can be used to rapidly produce the best adapted and most efficient strains for virtually any application, including for the conversion of biomass to biofuels, bioremediation, biosynthesis of fermentation products to compounds like antibiotics. EVOLUGATE aims to become a major player in these exciting fields as well.
"From environmental protection to human medicine, the power of evolution is needed to create solutions to the problems facing us," says Steven Benner, who directs the Gainesville-based research Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution. "The Evolugate methodology harnesses this power in ways previously unavailable, and their work published today proves this for a problem of considerable importance."
A Technology Based On Natural Selection
In the BMC Biotechnology article, researchers started with a naturally occurring fungus, whose ability to kill insects is currently exploited by industry as a bio-pesticide (www.evolugate.com). Unfortunately, this fungus is neither efficient at killing insects nor capable of targeting specific insects. One of the main problems is that insects have acquired special tricks to avoid being killed by pathogenic fungi. Some insects participate in what is called behavioral fever in which they take sun baths to elevate their body temperatures above that which the fungi can grow. Other insects can even elevate their own body temperature in much the same way humans do. Using the Evolugate technology, researchers selected for variants of this fungus that can grow at high temperatures in the hopes that an evolved 'thermo-tolerant' strain could circumvent insect thermoregulation.
"In the same way farmers have developed new crops for millennia by screening large numbers of seeds, we are attempting to accelerate evolution by selecting for fungi that can withstand the insect immune response" says Dr. Thomas Lyons, Principal Scientist at Entovia, LLC. "Thus far, we have selected for strains that can grow at elevated temperatures and preliminary tests performed by the USDA suggest that one of the strains we have developed may be able to kill control insects significantly faster than the original fungal strain.
An Environmentally Safe Technology
"This technology pioneers new avenues for working with natural evolutionary processes to allow for the development of bioinsecticides that target specific insect pests rather than acting as generalized insect toxins. In this manner we can minimize the impact on humans, animals, fish, birds, plants and, more importantly, beneficial insects” says Dr. Lyons.
A Technology with Breathtaking Commercial Potential
The widespread commercial use of bioinsecticides has so far been limited by their lack of efficacy. Basically, the commercially available biocontrol fungi do not kill the insects fast enough to be particularly economical and most of pesticides currently in use are not insect-specific—meaning that they have the potential to kill beneficial insects (and other animals) in addition to the target. The Evolugate technology can dramatically expand the application of bioinsecticides into new commercial arenas.
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