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CULTURE COLLECTION
New Zealand and its jurisdictions, which include areas of Antarctica, represent unparalleled diversity in the range of environmental climates available for the evolution of unique microbial species. These extreme environments include Antarctic deserts, boiling mud pools, geothermal vents, desiccated dry valleys and acid fumaroles
Painstaking exploration of these extreme environments by dozens of scientists over 20 years has yielded a proprietary collection of more than 2000 extremophile organisms which include cold temperature fungi of three classes, and extremophile achaea and bacteria that has been characterized in over 200 publications.
SCIENTIFIC AND COMMERCIAL VALUE OF THE PROPRIETARY COLLECTION
These extreme environments in which microorganisms have evolved over eons represent the same range of conditions found in many life science research, biotechnology and industrial applications creating the potential for novel enzymes of scientific interest and significant commercial value. The temperatures at the sources in which these organisms were found ranged from 0ºC to 106ºC and the pH of the environments ranged from 2.8 to 10.9.
The ZyGEM team has extensive knowledge of the enzyme activities in the collection as well as knowledge of the environmental conditions at the source, including specific location, pH, and temperature. All of these microbial isolates have been grown in the laboratory and growth conditions have been optimized.
Approximately 700 of the isolates have been characterized for enzyme activity which includes:
- Cellulases: Endo, exo and avicellases and glucosidases
- Hemicellulases: Xylanases, mannases, xylosidases, mannosidases
- Proteases: Neutral and alkaline serine
- Lipases including esterases
- Amylases and pullulanases
- Other enzymes including sulfur reducing enzymes and polymerases.
The genes encoding many of the enzyme activities observed have been cloned and sequenced and found to be unique.
The ZyGEM team has many years of experience working with the collection and will continue to form partnerships to further mine and characterize the collection for enzymes with scientific and economic value.
ZYGEM CAN OFFER THE FOLLOWING SERVICES TO IDENTIFY NOVEL ENZYMES:
- Access to over 1000 isolates which have been partially or fully characterized for the enzyme activity through field or laboratory observations
- Access to the proprietary culture collection for bioprospecting for novel activities
- Expert advise on the best subset of the culture collection to screen for particular applications
- Project management or project teams and facilities required to screen the collection for enzymes of interest
- Expertise in molecular biology, biochemistry, enzymology, and microbiology
Please contact us if you are interested in collaborative opportunities in either research or business >>