Team:U of Guelph
One OXCelent
FRCn' Project
iGEM Guelph 2017
This year is the first time the University of Guelph's newly formed iGEM team will be participating in the iGEM competition. We designed our project to address a common problem in the brewing industry: removing beerstone. Our research and work this year focuses on laying a solid foundation upon which the Guelph iGEM team will build and grow.
What is Beerstone
Beerstone, also known as Calcium Oxalate is formed on the insides of brewing machinery such as beer vats, aging tanks, and kegs. These Calcium Oxalate deposits provide protection and nutrients for bacteria to grow due to their porous nature, allowing unwanted bacterial growth and the formation of biofilms. These microorganisms cause beer spoilage, products with reduced shelf-life, off-flavours and sour tastes. All of these can result in beer that is unpalatable and unsuitable for sale or consumption.
Calcium Oxalate is made through a reaction between calcium ions commonly found in water and the oxalate ions from the cereal grains and hops. This compound is incredibly insoluble and difficult to remove without the use of corrosive acid or alkaline cleaners. For this reason, beerstone is a major problem to the brewing industry.
Our Project
Our project goal is to develop a safe, enzymatic cleaning method for the removal of beerstone, using enzymes from the oxalate degrading human gut bacteria Oxalobacter formigenes. This year our preliminary project will focus on the cloning and characterization of the two enzymes; Formyl Coenzyme A Transferase (FRC), and Oxalyl-Coenzyme A Decarboxylase (OXC) from O. formigenes. These enzymes are used in O. formigenes's oxalate degrading metabolic pathway. Our project will first involve cloning these enzymes into Escherichia coli. We will then express these enzymes and purify them using ion chromatography. Finally, the main portion of our project will focus on characterizing these enzymes' optimal conditions such as pH, temperature, and concentration of the substrate.
We will then use this information in future projects to develop an enzymatic cleaning method for beerstone. Future directions for this technology may also be the development of oxalate-degrading yeast to prevent beer stone formation.
