Team:ULaval/Description
Project
Human Practices
Team
Collaboration & Communication
Collaboration & Communication
Project Description
First: Maple Syrup
It is produced by concentrating the sap of the Acer saccharum, the sugar maple tree. Maple syrup is a sweet, slightly viscous liquid with high saccharose content and rich flavours. These flavours are produced partly by the evaporation process of the sap through Maillard’s reaction, and partly by microorganisms contained in the sap. Maillard’s reaction can create aromatic compounds itself, but microorganisms like Pseudomonas fluorescens can produce vanillin, a desired good-tasting chemical, that can round out the taste of the syrup (Filteau, 2011).
The process to make maple syrup consists of several steps (PPAQ, n.d.). First, producers need to harvest the sap. For this, a large network of tubing connects little holes in each maple tree in a producer’s forest to big containers in his or her sugar shack, where the syrup will be made. These tubes are only installed in spring, when specific conditions align; when nights hit below freezing temperatures and days warm up above 0 °C. During those nights, the sap goes up through the xylem, the vascular tissues of the tree, and during the warmer daytime, it goes back down towards the roots.
This movement of the sap, along with a little help from a vacuum pump, is what allows the liquid to flow through the tubes and into the tanks in the sugar shack, escaping the bark through the cuts made by producers. From that point, before the maple sap is boiled, it is usually concentrated one first time via reversed osmosis to a sugar concentration of approximately 20 % (m/v). Then, it is finally thrown into the evaporation process to reach a final sugar concentration of 66 % (m/v).
During this last process, a complex Maillard’s reaction occurs, condensing amine reactive groups of amino acids and reducing ends of the glucose and fructose, leading to creating chromogenic and aromatic compounds in the final syrup. In Quebec, our team’s home province in Canada, the final barrel of maple syrup is then sent to the PPAQ, a regulatory entity that quality tests the product before they put it on the market.
In Canada, our team’s home country, maple syrup is an important part of culture and history. Collecting maple sap in spring to make syrup is a practice that has been around for centuries, originating from the Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands of Canada (Werner, 2006).
Today, it is a prolific industry in Eastern Canada, especially in Quebec, our team’s home province. In 2020 alone, the value of the maple products produced in Canada was of $558.5M in Canadian dollars ($441.4M USD), 90% of which Quebec produced (Statistics Canada, 2021). It has a big place in the people of Quebec’s hearts, their cooking and their recipes.
Going into this project last year, we talked to both experts and producers to get the big picture on the various defects maple syrup could have and what we could help with.
By consulting with these groups, we found out about ropy maple syrup: between 2008 and 2017, it led to an economic loss of about $5.5M CAD (Lagacé, et al., 2018). Several experts we talked to throughout our project also believed that the problem may continue to increase with global warming.
Check out our Human Practices page to find out more about these discussions!
While it is not the most prevalent problem in the industry, it is one for which there is currently no solution and maple producers struggling with it suffer from many losses. It can both ruin one’s profits and damage their equipment, leading to even greater losses.
It is also a problem for which synthetic biology is one of the most promising solutions. Our solution is actually a completely new application of this science in the maple syrup industry! On top of that, last year, we learned through our Human Practices work that producers themselves are even open to the use of synthetic biology for solving this problem. Therefore, not only is the technology useful in solving this problem, it is welcome in its target industry.
Our main goal for this project was to create a solution to reduce ropy syrup’s viscosity enough for it to be usable as a maple by-product. Knowing that dextran is the main cause for viscosity in ropy maple syrup, we decided to develop a treatment based on an enzyme capable of degrading these dextrans: a dextranase.
Other industries already use dextranases in this way for products like sugar cane juice. However, these existing treatments are not adapted to the context of ropy maple syrup: they are used in very different conditions.
The dextranases used in the sugar cane industry must work at high temperatures, low viscosity and low sugar concentration, with a pH of around 5.0. Conversely, for a dextranase to work for ropy maple syrup, it must be adapted to low temperatures (10-15 C°), high viscosity and high sugar concentration, with a pH between 5.5 and 6.0 (Lagacé et al., 2018).
We soon realized that none of the previously studied and characterized dextranases were active at the low temperatures we needed. Using bioinformatics tools, we therefore looked into a previously uncharacterized dextranase candidate : Gelidibacter algens, a cold-adapted bacterium that lives in sea ice (Bowman et al., 1997).
After finding our candidate, the next steps of our project consisted of expressing and purifying the enzyme with the help of E. coli, followed by characterizing the qualities of our new dextranase. Due to COVID-19 last year, we weren’t able to do the lab work necessary in the 2020 edition of our project, focusing more on the Human Practices and the Implementation aspects of the treatment. In 2021, we focused on the lab work, finally having access to the lab. On top of this, we even managed to test our dextranase to find out by just how much it actively reduced the viscosity of the syrup.
Check out Proof of Concept to find out more about the rheology behind our solution.
It is produced by concentrating the sap of the Acer saccharum, the sugar maple tree. Maple syrup is a sweet, slightly viscous liquid with high saccharose content and rich flavours. These flavours are produced partly by the evaporation process of the sap through Maillard’s reaction, and partly by microorganisms contained in the sap. Maillard’s reaction can create aromatic compounds itself, but microorganisms like Pseudomonas fluorescens can produce vanillin, a desired good-tasting chemical, that can round out the taste of the syrup (Filteau, 2011).
The process to make maple syrup consists of several steps (PPAQ, n.d.). First, producers need to harvest the sap. For this, a large network of tubing connects little holes in each maple tree in a producer’s forest to big containers in his or her sugar shack, where the syrup will be made. These tubes are only installed in spring, when specific conditions align; when nights hit below freezing temperatures and days warm up above 0 °C. During those nights, the sap goes up through the xylem, the vascular tissues of the tree, and during the warmer daytime, it goes back down towards the roots.
This movement of the sap, along with a little help from a vacuum pump, is what allows the liquid to flow through the tubes and into the tanks in the sugar shack, escaping the bark through the cuts made by producers. From that point, before the maple sap is boiled, it is usually concentrated one first time via reversed osmosis to a sugar concentration of approximately 20 % (m/v). Then, it is finally thrown into the evaporation process to reach a final sugar concentration of 66 % (m/v).
Figure 1: Maple syrup
production cycle
During this last process, a complex Maillard’s reaction occurs, condensing amine reactive groups of amino acids and reducing ends of the glucose and fructose, leading to creating chromogenic and aromatic compounds in the final syrup. In Quebec, our team’s home province in Canada, the final barrel of maple syrup is then sent to the PPAQ, a regulatory entity that quality tests the product before they put it on the market.
Why is it important?
In Canada, our team’s home country, maple syrup is an important part of culture and history. Collecting maple sap in spring to make syrup is a practice that has been around for centuries, originating from the Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands of Canada (Werner, 2006).
Today, it is a prolific industry in Eastern Canada, especially in Quebec, our team’s home province. In 2020 alone, the value of the maple products produced in Canada was of $558.5M in Canadian dollars ($441.4M USD), 90% of which Quebec produced (Statistics Canada, 2021). It has a big place in the people of Quebec’s hearts, their cooking and their recipes.
How did we choose this project?
The ropiness arises from exopolysaccharides produced by microorganisms inhabiting the
tubing network. It was revealed that dextran producing lactic bacteria of the genus
Leuconostoc as Leuconostoc mesenteroides are responsible for the viscous texture of ropy
maple syrup (Lagacé et al., 2018).
Members of our team have both cultural and personal ties to the maple industry. In
2020, we
therefore chose to look into issues maple producers were facing.
Going into this project last year, we talked to both experts and producers to get the big picture on the various defects maple syrup could have and what we could help with.
By consulting with these groups, we found out about ropy maple syrup: between 2008 and 2017, it led to an economic loss of about $5.5M CAD (Lagacé, et al., 2018). Several experts we talked to throughout our project also believed that the problem may continue to increase with global warming.
Check out our Human Practices page to find out more about these discussions!
The ropiness arises from exopolysaccharides produced by microorganisms inhabiting the
tubing network. It was revealed that dextran producing lactic bacteria of the genus
Leuconostoc as Leuconostoc mesenteroides are responsible for
the viscous texture of ropy
maple syrup (Lagacé et al., 2018).
What does synthetic biology have to do with it?
While it is not the most prevalent problem in the industry, it is one for which there is currently no solution and maple producers struggling with it suffer from many losses. It can both ruin one’s profits and damage their equipment, leading to even greater losses.
It is also a problem for which synthetic biology is one of the most promising solutions. Our solution is actually a completely new application of this science in the maple syrup industry! On top of that, last year, we learned through our Human Practices work that producers themselves are even open to the use of synthetic biology for solving this problem. Therefore, not only is the technology useful in solving this problem, it is welcome in its target industry.
What were our goals for this project?
Our main goal for this project was to create a solution to reduce ropy syrup’s viscosity enough for it to be usable as a maple by-product. Knowing that dextran is the main cause for viscosity in ropy maple syrup, we decided to develop a treatment based on an enzyme capable of degrading these dextrans: a dextranase.
Other industries already use dextranases in this way for products like sugar cane juice. However, these existing treatments are not adapted to the context of ropy maple syrup: they are used in very different conditions.
The dextranases used in the sugar cane industry must work at high temperatures, low viscosity and low sugar concentration, with a pH of around 5.0. Conversely, for a dextranase to work for ropy maple syrup, it must be adapted to low temperatures (10-15 C°), high viscosity and high sugar concentration, with a pH between 5.5 and 6.0 (Lagacé et al., 2018).
We soon realized that none of the previously studied and characterized dextranases were active at the low temperatures we needed. Using bioinformatics tools, we therefore looked into a previously uncharacterized dextranase candidate : Gelidibacter algens, a cold-adapted bacterium that lives in sea ice (Bowman et al., 1997).
After finding our candidate, the next steps of our project consisted of expressing and purifying the enzyme with the help of E. coli, followed by characterizing the qualities of our new dextranase. Due to COVID-19 last year, we weren’t able to do the lab work necessary in the 2020 edition of our project, focusing more on the Human Practices and the Implementation aspects of the treatment. In 2021, we focused on the lab work, finally having access to the lab. On top of this, we even managed to test our dextranase to find out by just how much it actively reduced the viscosity of the syrup.
Check out Proof of Concept to find out more about the rheology behind our solution.
References
Filteau Marie. (2011). Etude du microbiote de la seve d’erable et de son impact sur la qualité du sirop. Université Laval.
Producteurs et productrices acéricoles du Québec (PPAQ). (n.d.). Les étapes de production du sirop d’érable. Retrieved October 13, 2021, from:
https://ppaq.ca/fr/production-acericole/production-du-sirop-erable/
Werner, L. H. (2006, February 7). Maple Syrup Industry. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 13, 2021, from:
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/maple-sugar-industry
Statistics Canada. (2021, February 2). Maple Products, 2020. The Daily. Retrieved October 13, 2021, from:
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/201210/dq201210e-eng.htm