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Abstract

The growing demand for sustainable and nutritious food sources requires innovative solutions capable of decoupling food production from intensive land, water, and energy use. Microbial foods have emerged as a promising alternative to conventional agriculture, providing high-quality proteins while enabling the production of valuable bioactive compounds. Among these, antioxidants such as carotenoids, coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), and compatible solutes play a crucial role in promoting human health and mitigating oxidative stress-related diseases. However, current microbial food platforms have primarily focused on protein production, leaving antioxidant enrichment largely unexplored. HAURORA aims to establish halo-alkaliphilic purple phototrophic bacteria (HA-PPB) as a novel and scalable platform for the sustainable production of antioxidant-rich microbial foods. These extremophilic microorganisms combine exceptional protein productivity with the ability to synthesize a diverse portfolio of antioxidants while thriving under highly saline and alkaline conditions, enabling non-sterile cultivation and reduced freshwater consumption. The project is structured around three interconnected work packages. WP1 – Discovery and Characterization of Novel HA-PPB Strains. The first work package focuses on the isolation, purification, and physiological characterization of new axenic HA-PPB strains collected from extreme saline-alkaline environments. By systematically investigating the effects of salinity, pH, and light conditions, WP1 will identify strains with enhanced antioxidant production capacities and elucidate the metabolic pathways responsible for the synthesis of carotenoids, CoQ10, ectoine, and hydroxyectoine. This work will establish a unique strain collection and generate fundamental knowledge on antioxidant metabolism in extremophilic PPB. WP2 – Development of a Two-Stage Cultivation Strategy for Antioxidant Enrichment. Building on the selected strains, WP2 will develop an innovative two-stage cultivation process that decouples biomass production from antioxidant induction. The first stage will maximize biomass accumulation under optimized illumination conditions, while the second stage will exploit photo- and osmotic-stress cues to stimulate antioxidant biosynthesis. Advanced photobioreactor operation and mechanistic modeling will be integrated to optimize light distribution, predict metabolic responses, and achieve high productivities of both protein-rich biomass and antioxidants. WP3 – Food-Grade Downstream Processing and Product Quality Assessment. The third work package addresses one of the major bottlenecks in microbial food production: downstream processing. Pulsed Electric Fields (PEF) and High-Pressure Homogenization (HPH) will be systematically compared and optimized to recover proteins and antioxidants while preserving nutritional quality and minimizing energy consumption. The resulting products will be evaluated for recovery efficiency, antioxidant retention, digestibility, and overall food quality.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Vlaeminck Siegfried
• Fellow: Tizzani Rosaria

Research team(s)

• Biobased sustainability engineering (SUSTAIN)

Funding

• BOF

Project website

Project type(s)

• Research Project