Wine is the ultimate culmination of a plethora of complex biological processes. Accordingly, most inputs (even when excluding grape must) are biologically based and include commercial yeasts, bacteria and enzymes used in processing.

Classically, the development of improved biological inputs has resolved around phenotypic selection, in which organisms with improved characteristics are specifically chosen for further use or as a breeding stock. As selection relies on genetic variation, mutagenesis is often used to increase the pool of variation available. However, standard mutagenesis/selection is a random process, in which isolates with the required alteration must be identified from a background of thousands of strains. Classical strain development is therefore resource intensive, which ultimately limits the scope of research that can be undertaken.

This project will explore the metabolic diversity afforded by the application of revolutionary synthetic biology techniques to deliver microbial tools that will future-proof the Australian wine industry should regulatory and social license barriers to the use of this technology within Australia be removed. These synthetic biology derived organisms can be endowed with entirely new traits (phenotypes), resulting from the introduction of regulatory circuits for control of gene expression or the addition of entirely new pathways enabling the production of new metabolites.

As a whole, this project will explore the spectrum of possibilities provided by these new genome editing technologies within the framework of the developing, and anticipated, regulatory landscape.