Meiogenix and Lesaffre Collaborate to Improve Industrial Yeast Strains’ Performance
08 Jun 2016 --- Meiogenix and Lesaffre have entered into a collaboration agreement to develop improved industrial yeast strains using Meiogenix’s recombination technologies.
The PhoeniX technology developed by Meiogenix controls the process of natural meiotic recombination and generates efficiently non–GM recombined yeast cells particularly for industrial strains where meiosis is impeded.
Meiogenix is a French biotech company that develops technologies to increase the genetic diversity of organisms by modulating meiosis and targeting recombination. Under the collaboration agreement Meiogenix will apply its non-GM technology to discover novel yeast strains with improved industrial properties that will be then industrialized by Lesaffre, a global key player in yeasts and fermentation.
“We are delighted of this collaboration with Lesaffre, a worldwide key player in the industrial yeast field. In the last few years we have carried out several R&D projects in yeast and we are glad to put into play the expertise and technologies we have developed. We believe that PhoeniX, a proprietary non-GM technology, can have a major impact in the yeast industry, especially for food applications where mainstream genetic engineering technologies are not yet an accepted option.” says Giacomo Bastianelli, Co-founder & CEO of Meiogenix (pictured).
Speaking with FoodIngredientsFirst, Bastianelli said that Meiogenix had been working on the technology actively for the last 3 years: “The project that led to the invention was started 5 years ago but in the last 2 years we have obtained data showing that it works well in difficult industrial strains (polyploids, sterile), reason of the collaboration with Lesaffre.”
“PhoeniX induces meiotic recombination in hybrid yeast strains without the cell going through the whole process of meiosis, making it very interesting to introduce genetic diversity in sterile industrial strains,” says Bastianelli.
“However, if for some reasons (e.g. mutations in recombination genes) the yeast cell is not capable of making meiotic double-strand-breaks, then PhoeniX cannot be applied. This is the first thing we look at when we need to evaluate if PhoeniX can be applied to a specific strain,” he added.
“We have something in hand that can be of great help to improve performances of yeast cells and we hope the baking industry will react with interest,” claims Bastianelli, “Baking yeast strains are difficult to improve unless using genome editing technologies, something not yet accepted in the market.”
“The fact that PhoeniX technology is considered a non-GM method makes it very attractive for applications in baking and fermenting yeast.”
The global market value for industrial yeast is projected to grow at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 8.8% and expected to reach $3.6B by 2018. The recent advances in genetic engineering techniques (e.g. CRISPR/CAS9, synthetic biology) can have an unprecedented impact in the development of novel yeast strains but severe concerns about genetically modified organisms used in the food and beverage industry are still a major hurdle for any development and commercialization. Therefore, research efforts will aim at developing new screening methods and technologies for the isolation of natural recombinants with the desired properties.
“Innovation has always been at the heart of Lesaffre’s development. Research and Development is one of Lesaffre’s key drivers for success. Being the brainchild of Dr. Alain Nicolas, a scientist at the Institut Curie, Meiogenix’s innovative technology represents for us an opportunity to generate diversity in yeast. As an alternative to mutagenesis, this technique can improve yeasts and be applied in many fields from baking yeast to biofuels”, says Didier Colavizza, R&D Biotech Center Director at Lesaffre.
by Elizabeth Kenward
