Created through Genopole’s Atige program, a team headed by Andrew Tolonen has developed a set of biotech tools to genetically transform and control gene expression in Clostridium genus bacteria. Their work creates new vistas in biomanufacturing. Clostridia bacteria are able to ferment plant biomass and especially the lignocellulose fibers present in plant debris. They thus have potential as “factories” for producing high-added-value compounds of interest, including medicines. Within Genoscope’s Genomics Metabolics1 mixed research unit, the team has developed a method to optimize the genetic engineering of Clostridium genus bacteria for biotech applications. The team used the Clostridium phytofermentans species as a model in their work. The researchers first optimized the genetic transformation of C. phytofermentans, then sought means to modulate the expression of genes of interest.

1 Metabolic Genomics (CEA/CNRS/University of Évry Paris-Saclay)

On 27 March 2023, Genoscope held a seminar under the banner “Structure Informed Microbial Population Genetics.” The event was facilitated by Murat Eren, head of the Ecosystem Data Science team at the University of Oldenburg’s Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity in Germany. He presented a study his team did describing an approach for integrating environmental microbiology within the progress made recently in protein structure prediction. That study shed light on close associations between intrapopulation genomic variations, environmental selective pressures, and the structural properties of proteins.

On 24 November 2023, Genoscope held a seminar with Professors Erwan Poupon and Mehdi Beniddir as guests. The event’s objective was to present tools and approaches for exploring the diversity of natural substances and their biosynthesis pathways, the emergence of molecular complexity and metabolomics.

In spring 2023, metagenomics analyses performed by Genoscope enabled the characterization of mirusvirus, a new group of abundant, marine viruses that infect unicellular plankton. Genetically, mirusvirus appears to occupy a halfway point between the herpesviruses, common in humans and other animals, and the recently discovered giant viruses. This discovery provides the scientific community with new pathways for the study of the ecology and evolution of DNA viruses wherever they may be found.