Checkerspot — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: 8.8

Description

Remarkably, the $19 Billion (US) dollar per year oleochemicals industry is based on the large scale production of triglyceride oils from just 15 oilseed crops which in turn are comprised of just 14 distinct fatty acids. However, if one interrogates oils and fatty acids elaborated by oilseeds in nature, most of which will never be domesticated and grown as crops, the number of distinct fatty acid species exceeds 500. Indeed, the size of the oleochemicals industry and the myriad uses that this limited number of triglyceride oils have found use in, is a testament to the ingenuity of oil chemists, material scientists, fabricators and designers throughout the world. it is equally apparent that nature has the potential to afford a far broader palette of chemical building blocks leading to the development of entirely new classes of materials with novel physical properties and superior performance characteristics.As part of a longer term effort to access this broader palette of chemical building blocks, this phase I proposal will leverage Checkerspot's oleaginous microalgal platform to produce hydroxylated triglyceride oils which will find immediate use with a customer as a novel lubricant with outstanding cold flow, anti-corrosive and high oxidative stability properties. As part of this effort, Checkerspot will mine the transcriptomes of a variety of target plant oilseeds for gene activities which, when expressed in our platform microalgae, will manifest in hydroxylated triglyceride oils. These efforts will serve to greatly enhance Checkerspot's oleaginous microalgal platform and lead to the production truly novel triglyceride oils which will find utility in a variety of applications ranging from lubricants to polymeric materials.