Cold-active microbial oxidoreductases from Arctic sea ice and the deep sea

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Industrial biotechnology is crucial for developing a bio-based economy to address climate change, population growth, and limited fossil resources. The chemical industry is increasingly adopting biotechnological processes that offer ecological and economic advantages. However, creating novel, environmentally friendly processes necessitates extensive research across various scientific fields and process engineering. Efficient processes require iterative optimization to minimize by-product formation and waste streams. A notable by-product needing valorization is glycerol, which has seen excess production due to increased biodiesel production. To reduce disposal costs and derive value-added products from this low-cost substrate, innovative biorefinery concepts must be developed. This study aimed to identify biocatalysts for converting glycerol and its derivatives. To discover unusual enzymes with biotechnological potential, a screening of extremophiles was conducted. The first task involved developing a high-throughput screening method to identify cold-active oxidoreductases from psychrophilic microorganisms. Two approaches were utilized: an activity-based screening of wild-type strains isolated from Arctic sea ice and a sequence-based screening of a metagenome database from a microbial deep-sea consortium. The second major task involved cloning and expressing novel oxidoreductase-encoding genes, leading to the selection of promis