- controlled EXTRACTS ltd
Engineering nature to generate novel products and proprietary strains
We are developing a value-creating technology platform that combines controlled environment cultivation, genetic engineering, and high-throughput screening to create plant protectants and pharmaceutical drug products.
Our platform enables us to cultivate an extensive range of fungal species. From here, we create a library of secondary metabolites and other fungal-derived compounds and screen them for activity.
With over 6 million different species of fungi worldwide, and only a tiny fraction of these analysed and characterised to date, our programs aim to explore, identify, and harness this immense biodiversity to unlock previously undiscovered, high-value secondary metabolites for use in our product development pipelines.
Characterising Active Compounds in Our Fungal Extract
Controlled Extracts LTD
Currently, we are working further towards understanding the physical and chemical characteristics of our active substances found in our fungal extract (figure 1). We are submitting a sample to an academic research group who will screen our extract for over 1000 known mycotoxins from a diverse range of fungal species. This will aid in our understanding of its toxicity towards non-target organisms and if it is benign, adds significant value to our product, reducing the need for ameliorating any toxic effects.
- Figure 1: Exemplary image of fractions from our active extract
We can now reliably produce sufficiently bioactive quantities between batches for our experiments (figure 2), but endeavour to increase bioproduction through environmental alteration of our fungus. Improving bioproduction is an important bottleneck, given our active substances are currently produced in minute quantities (figure 3). This has made identification difficult. We are liaising with our collaborative partners, exploring identification of actives, native bioproduction, precision fermentation, and chemical synthesis to understand viable scaling approaches
Overcoming production bottlenecks in fungal metabolomics
- Figure 2: Spores incubated in a water control (left panel) vs our active extract (right panel). The extract delays germination by several hours and, importantly, completely arrests appressorial development. Further, the spores that do germinate exhibit much longer and multiple germ tubes. The appressorium is a bulbous, melanin-lined infection structure that the rice blast pathogen, Magnaporthe oryzae, uses to generate enormous amounts of turgor pressure, allowing it to punch its way into the plant (Square = spore, Triangle = germ tube, Star = appressorium).
Figure 3: Environmental alteration can have a profound effect on fungal growth, development, and secondary metabolite production. Here, the only environmental alteration was the temperature at which colonies were cultured, either at 25C (left) or room temperature (right)."
Evaluating Extract Efficacy and Safety in Rice Blast Disease Control
We have shown real world plant protection against rice blast disease, where extract-incubated spores gave rise to fewer and smaller lesions compared to our control (figure 4). We are now expanding these plant trials further. Likewise, phytotoxicity of our extract is being investigated, and we are leveraging the University of Plymouth’s plant health monitoring imaging system to determine both the extract’s protective and potential phytotoxic effects. Here, we will be able to measure Fv/Fm and NDVI, two markers of photosynthetic efficiency and general plant health.
Figure 4: Our active extract provides real world plant protection. Spores were incubated in either water (left panel) or our active extract (right panel); those incubated in our active extract gave rise to smaller and fewer lesions (brown, diamond-shaped necrotic regions) than our water control.
Our next steps include further work on separation and identification, screening for harmful mycotoxins, improving bioproduction in our fungus, and understanding if the extract can work as a plant priming agent, preventative fungicide, and post-infection fungicide.