Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** non-technical summarythe united…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** non-technical summarythe united states is a minor aquaculture producer, ranking 18TH in global aquaculture production in 2022, but IT is the leading importer of fish and fish products. Even though U.S. Aquaculture is growing at a compound annual rate of 4%, we still depend heavily upon imports. By value, 90% of the seafood we eat originates abroad, and more than half of imported seafood is produced by foreign aquaculture. The USDA aquaculture priorities are to identify and address the needs or constraints that limit U.S. Aquaculture. These include improved production systems and management strategies for efficiency and reduced environmental impacts. One of the most critical needs for domestic aquaculture is to obtain an inexpensive source of essential fatty acids. One of the most important essential nutrients that humans require are omega-3 (W3), long-chain, polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-pufas). These are fatty acids that our bodies do not produce in sufficient quantities, and they are critical in the development and maintenance of brain cells and neurons. Typically, we obtain these essential nutrients through the consumption of marine fish. These days, however, most of the fish eaten in the US is grown in aquaculture and imported. The most expensive component of aquaculture feeds is fish meal, which is the source of W3 fatty acids. Often, instead of fish meal, aquaculture farms substitute soybean oil, which does not contain long-chain polyunsaturated W3 fatty acids. As a result, the quality of foreign or even domestic fish grown in aquaculture lacks this highly important nutritional component. Xylome's proposed research and development aims directly at this nutritional and economic limitation by creating a novel pathway to provide high omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids for use in aquaculture feed. Currently, the only way to obtain W3 for aquaculture is by harvesting wild fish stocks, which are becoming rapidly depleted and more expensive to harvest. For aquaculture to be sustainable, a source of W3 that does not rely on wild fish stocks must be found. We propose to use byproducts from midwestern agriculture, drawing on stillage byproducts from ethanol production and SOY protein to create a fish-free high protein, high W3 fatty acid diet for intensively cultivated salmon and other species. Xylome has developed a novel highly lipogenic yeast strain capable of producing 85% of its dry weight in lipid. We intend to use contemporary methods of synthetic biology and precision fermentation to alter the metabolism of our highly lipogenic yeast so that IT produces omega-3 fatty acids.