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About PRESPHOTO

Context

Biological Ressources Centers (BRCs) are essential infrastructures supporting the Life Sciences and Biotechnology sectors (Janssen et al. 2010). Their establishment and maintenance require distributing well characterized, stable and performant biological materials (i.e. living organisms, cells, genes or related information) to the users in Life and Health sciences, Biotechnologies, Food industries, etc. Therefore, the implementation of reliable preservation technologies of the biological resources is crucial in the management of the BRCs.It aims to improve the preservation of diatoms and cyanobacteria and their genomic information in two collections of photosyntheticmicroalgae belonging to the Belgian Coordinated Collections of Microorganisms (BCCM), BCCM/DCG and BCCM/ULC.

Objectives

PRESPHOTO aims to develop and optimize new and cost-effective preservation techniques of photosynthetic microalgae (diatoms and cyanobacteria) in the two BCCM collections, BCCM/DCG and BCCM/ULC. This is a critical factor for the future growth and valorization of these collections. Therefore, the project aims to explore and improve technologies to preserve the strains and their genomic information (high quality DNA).

The majors objectives of PRESPHOTO are:

(i) to improve cryopreservation methods for diatoms and cyanobacteria (higher viability and larger number of taxa),

(ii) to evaluate the impact of the preservation protocols on the genomic stability of selected microalgal strains,

(iii) to create and validate a genomic DNA bank of microalgae,  

(iv) to determine and improve the cultivation success of strains and species from different habitats,

(v) to develop single-cell techniques as an alternative/addition to culturing for diatom taxa that resist cultivation.

Expected impacts 

The improvement of the preservation techniques and the creation of a DNA bank in the two BCCM collections of microalgae will improve their capacity to fulfill the needs of their users. Indeed, photosynthetic microalgae, including diatoms and cyanobacteria, are increasingly used in different areas of applied research, as in biotechnology (e.g. biodiesel, bioplastics), pharmaceutical research (e.g. bioactive molecules), or cosmetic applications. They are also used as food complement (polyunsaturated fatty acids), bio-fertilizers, bio-pesticides, animal food, etc. Their use in these fields requires having access to high-quality and authentic biological resources.

Moreover, the long-term preservation of strains in public culture collections is importantfor taxonomic, evolutionary and biodiversity studies. Their role includes the distribution of nomenclatural types for taxonomists, the provision of biological resources for DNA barcoding and the development of reference databases on which the identification of environmental DNA sequence data can be based.