P102: Genedata Selector™ for biofuels R&D

Increased demand for sustainable energy resources has led to the rapid growth in the number of R&D projects with a focus on delivering novel fermentation-based production processes of biofuels beyond ethanol. A variety of organisms, including microbes, fungi, algae and plants are investigated as potential biofuel producers. We report how the Genedata Selector system has successfully been used to select the optimal strain of a specific organism for biofuel production. In particular, we show how Genedata Selector can analyse an unlimited number of genomes and predict their capabilities to efficiently generate biofuels. Special focus is given to how Genedata Selector’s data analysis workflow can be applied to process next-generation sequencing data in the context of producing alkanes and butanol from microbes and fungi. The integration of next generation sequencing (NGS) based genotype and profiling data for transcriptomics together with mass-spectrometry based proteomics and metabolomics data improves and streamlines development cycles. Genedata Selector systematically processes these data and annotates the different organisms and derived strains in great detail. The system also automatically identifies and categorizes point mutations in their genetic and biological context. The software features interactive viewers that can drill down to sequence data, as well as Genedata Selector’s algorithms to predict the mutations’ influence on gene products (e.g. modifying an enzyme’s active site) or on gene regulation (e.g., altering a transcription factor’s DNA binding site) down to the metabolic pathway level. We also demonstrate analysis tools useful for fermentation-based production of new enzymes for cellulose degradation.