Valorization of the microbial bioresource of the St. Lawrence marine system in various sectors of the biotechnology industry

The objective of this project is to assess the potential of the microbial bioresource of the St. Lawrence marine system in various sectors of the biotechnology industry. The majority of microbial strains currently used in industries such as fermentation, water treatment and "green" cleaners are derived from terrestrial or freshwater environments. The marine environment constitutes the largest part of the biosphere and is an exceptional reservoir of diversity, both genetic and functional, not yet exploited in the biotechnology sector. Two Québec companies with different niches but exploiting the full potential of microorganisms for various biotechnological applications, are looking for new microbial strains active in seawater and at low temperature in order to propose new and innovative products on the market. The work carried out will consist firstly in a selective microbial enrichment of sea water and marine sediment samples in order to promote the growth of specific microbial strains. A metagenomic characterization of the samples before and after enrichment will be carried out in order to determine the microbial genera present. A screening step will finally be conducted to select consortia or microbial strains with high potential for commercial applications targeted by each industrial partner. The project will draw on the marine biotechnology and marine microbial ecology expertise of the Marine Biotechnology Research Center (CRBM) and the Institute of Marine Sciences of Rimouski (ISMER) to assist these two companies in the development of new bioproducts using microorganisms indigenous to the St. Lawrence marine system.