Metagenome-based Metabolic Modeling for Green transition of Water Treatment – application to Methanotrophy

Environmental biotechnologies performance is constrained by a limited understanding of the reactors microbiomes. With the advance of bioinformatics, new design and optimization model-based tools, referred to as metabolic models, are developed to account for full microbiome diversity and functionality. They already exist for industrial biotechnology, where bioreactors rely on mono or co-cultures. However, environmental biotechnologies rely on complex microbiomes and information inferred via bioinformatics is rarely used to build metabolic models. Furthermore, metabolic models are not used for simulation under dynamic conditions, preventing their application for process design. This project develops a systematic approach to create models describing the full microbiome functionality and applies them for the first time to design and optimize environmental biotechnologies. Methane oxidizing microbiomes are chosen as showcase given their role circular economy and climate change mitigation.