“This would not have been possible without NAPI and the metaproteomic analyses using the state-of-the-art mass spectrometer at NMBU”, says Arntzen.
Large-scale characterization of complex microbial communities
Arntzen has in the last 5-10 years worked on several projects that involve large-scale characterization of microbial communities, mapping genes and transcripts to proteomes with the aim to link phenotype to biological function. Such painstaking deconvolution of microbe families has led to several fruitful discoveries that can help tackle a wide range of societal challenges necessary for the green transition, including waste-to-energy processes in biogas production, mitigation of methane emission from cows using specific feed components, and understanding the microbial ecology of eutrophic freshwater lakes. These examples highlight the clear societal and biotechnological value of such research which is also key to his now-funded ERC project “NOD-AOL, Nitric-oxide-driven anaerobic oxidation of lignocellulose”.
Microbes are key to future sustainable biotechnology
In NOD-AOL, Arntzen and collaborators will seek to solve a 12-year-old mystery on how a certain type of enzymes produced by microbes found in a wide range of nitrate-rich freshwater habitats can convert nitric oxide to oxygen. “Today at NMBU, and through the NAPI collaboration, we have the technology and the instrumentation needed to fully characterize both the microbes and their enzymes”, says Arntzen. “These microbes were discovered more than a decade ago, but it is not until now that we can fully test and verify how their enzymes and metabolic pathways work in detail.” From this knowledge he hopes to be able to test a wide range of potential biotechnological applications of the enzymes and microbes, in particular, the ability to degrade lignocellulose oxidatively in anaerobic bioreactors for innovative production of biogas.
Metaproteomics is a crucial tool to link microbes and proteins to biological function
Metaproteomics, which involves global analysis of protein expression within microbial communities using mass spectrometry is a rapidly emerging research field. In 2021, Magnus Arntzen together with Phil Pope and NAPI partner Vincent Eijsink (leaders of the Microbial Ecology and Meta-Omics (MEMO), and Protein Engineering and Proteomics (PEP) groups at NMBU) were central initiators of the Metaproteomics Initiative, which today is a flourishing global consortium that is part of the European Proteomics Association (EuPA). Such international collaboration is crucial to develop and advance methodology as well as standardizing computational and experimental workflows. Metaproteomics workflows developed at NMBU as part of NAPI will be central also in the newly funded ERC project. You can read more about the project here: LINK
