The Ecogenomics Consortium was founded in 2003 to generate more insight into the composition and functioning at a genetic level of microbes and other soil organisms. In 2010, a condensed continuation of the Ecogenomics programme, called the Ecogenomics Innovation Center (ECOLINC), started focusing on the valorisation of innovative developments originating from the first stimulation round.
ECOLINC’s science and innovation programme involves developing metagenomics-based and other molecular tools and applying them for nature mining and a variety of ecosystem services. It concerns three main themes of valorisation:
Nature mining
- Exploitation of the genome of the mycophagous bacterial genus Collimonas and the isolation, production and functional characterisation of antifungal compounds thereof
- Mining bacterial genomes for novel traits, bioactive compounds and biosynthetic pathways.
Tools
- Development of high throughput (HTP) molecular diagnostics for microbial bioremediation capacity
- Design and development of DNA barcoding devices for soil quality and safety assessment
- High throughput genomics approaches for soil health and quality assessment,including development of a quantitative array system (barcoding device).
Ecosystem Services
- Validation and application of the invertebrate transcriptome-based test system for soil quality
- Application of an HTP system for the generation of toxicological profiles of soil toxicants
- Molecular diagnostics for the bioremediation and biodiversity
ecosystem services.
Most of the topics addressed in the ECOLINCproposal are aimed at developing valorisation opportunities for both societal and economic (industrial) applications. They may concern nature mining of soil microorganisms for new biofunctional compounds (antibiotics, enzymes), eco-toxicogenomics for the development of monitoring tools or alternative tests to be used in environmental (soil) quality assessment. Other topics are,for instance, the analysis and improvement of bioremediation potential, improved disease suppressiveness of soils or impacts onbiodiversity.
The ECOLINC programme is integrated with BE-Basic in a bio-based economy programme within the FES cluster “bio-based sustainable industrial chemistry”. This will further boost the development of additional industrial applications of ecogenomics research, such as the mining for novel, improved biocatalytic enzymes useful in biorefinery of agricultural wastes or the search for biofunctional compounds with adhesive properties for improved bio-construction materials (e.g. smart soils).
In short, tools developed in ECOLINC with the main focus on soil can be exploited and adapted to broader applications, in particular
those related to bio-based sustainable industrial chemistry.
Additional information
Ecogenomics Consortium factsheet
Website
www.ecogenomics.nl