Microbial Fermentation of Taurine for the Sustainable Production of a Nutritional Ingredient

Taurine (Tau) is an essential nutrient for humans and animals; it is needed for cardiovascularskeletal muscle vision and nervous system function. Tau is naturally occurring in meat and otheranimal products. As we shift to more plant-based food and feed diets Tau must be added as aningredient or taken as a supplement to maintain healthy Tau levels. The vast majority of Tau ismanufactured in China from petrochemical-based processes that use carcinogenic and hazardouscompounds. The overall project goal is to produce a sustainable non-petroleum-based cost- competitive source of Tau that could be added as a nutritional ingredient in alternative proteinproducts. This Phase I project aims to establish a minimum viable process for the commercialproduction of Tau using microbial fermentation. The plan is to use genetic engineering to (a)introduce a constitutive promoter into the Tau biosynthetic pathway (b) knock out the Taudegradation pathways and (c) modulate the global regulator of sulfur metabolism. Mediaformulation and fermentation parameters will be optimized to further increase Tau production anddemonstrate scalability using fermentation. To achieve cost competitiveness Phase II efforts willfocus on the development of an economical downstream process for Tau purification andoptimization of carbon nitrogen and sulfur utilization. This project addresses the USDA NIFAgoal to contribute to the nation's energy independence through sustainable production of bio-basedproducts and with the aim of the Food Science and Nutrition topic area to develop new andimproved technologies and products that enhance the nutritional quality of foods.