Centre for Health and Development (CHAD)
By 2050, the demand for meat and dairy products will surge due to a global population of 9.4 billion, putting pressure on the environment. Single cell proteins (SCPs) offer a solution, and this project aims to generate novel yeast hybrids to produce SCP as a sustainable alternative to traditional protein sources.
The global population is expected to reach 9.4 billion by 2050, leading to a surge in demand for meat and dairy products above 400 and 800 million tonnes, respectively1. This presents significant challenges for food production and puts immense pressure on the economy and environment. To address global protein deficiency issues, the production of microbial proteins, also known as single cell proteins (SCPs), presents a promising solution.
Microbial proteins offer several benefits over animal and plant proteins and are a promising ingredient for high-protein foods due to their year-round production not being seasonal or climate-dependent. SCPs can be obtained through the cultivation of a range of microorganisms, including bacteria, yeast, fungi, and algae. However, to meet the increasing demand for SCPs in food and feed applications, it is necessary to explore novel microbes and alternative substrates that can perform optimally under different conditions. This project will use an interdisciplinary approach to generate novel yeast hybrids that are not genetically modified, by combining different yeast species to produce SCP at an industrial scale.
The proposed project is built upon the knowledge gained from our previous research (funded by BBSRC grant BB/L022508/1) that aimed to overcome sterility of hybrid yeasts and exploit their biotechnological potential. This earlier work successfully developed advanced hybrid crossing protocols, discovered novel yeast, and produced new strains with superior performance compared to parental species2,3,4. Based on these findings we are eager to continue exploring the possibilities of hybrid yeast strains in the context of biotechnology and SCP production. We are confident that our latest project will yield important new insights into this exciting and rapidly evolving field.
- Boland et al., Trends Food Sci. Technol. 2013
- Naseeb S et al., PNAS. 2021.
- Hewitt et al., Microorganisms. 2020
- Naseeb, S., Int J Syst Evol Microbiol, 2017