4.7 Synthetic yeast for long-range space travel
In few areas of application will this approach of exploring the final
biological frontier be more apparent than in space. To support human
viability, future production of food, chemicals and materials in space
will almost certainly be based on the deployment of synthetic organisms
(Berliner et al., 2021; Montague et al., 2012, Santomartino et al.,
2023), of which yeast will play a major role (Llorente et al., 2022). No
other technology can promise such low weight at launch, with the ability
to use end-point resources for building biomass and product yield in a
dried product. Simply put, microorganisms require fewer inputs, double
their biomass faster and can be engineered more effectively at the
end-point in comparison to abiotic alternatives. Space travel not only
offers, but requires an entirely new arena of application for
engineering biology.
Engineered yeast will be essential to nutritional diversity in space,
ensuring that a range of tastes, flavours, aromas (van Wyk et al., 2018)
and colours negate the risk of dietary fatigue. Altered carbon source
utilisation will be essential to wholly circularise waste management on
any resource-isolated extraterrestrial destination (Espinosa et al.,
2020, Bell et al., 2022). As yeast research and technology matures, it
may be feasible within a few decades to produce a ‘colony starter kit’
consisting of a consortia of engineered yeast with pan-genomic diversity
through carefully selected neo-chromosomes layered over minimal genome
architectures. Such a starter kit would provide the new colony maximal
diversity of functionality within a small volume, together with the
inputs required to engineer their biologics for the nuances of their end
point location and user requirements. Until such time, research geared
towards such an objective will have multiple end-users on Earth in the
burgeoning industrial biomanufacturing sector. It is important to note,
however, the key differences and difficulties between growing an
organism in space compared to earth (Santomartino et al., 2023). For
example, a key area of research necessary to enable these types of
applications may involve hardening yeast chassis to cosmic and solar
sources of radiation. This area of investigation is likely to have
implications for human habitation in space and may intersect with
ongoing advances in cancer research.