Omega-3 (n-3) long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (Omega-3), eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acids, are essential dietary nutrients with key roles in neural development, immune and inflammatory responses, and beneficial effects in several pathological conditions, including cardiovascular and neurological diseases, and some cancers. Many national and international bodies recommend a daily intake of up to 500 mg of Omega-3 for optimum health. It is known that in countries with low economic status the availability of Omega-3 in the food supply is low and often below the minimum recommended intake. It is now appreciated that improvement of human nutrition in terms of fatty acid composition is an important goal and so the primary objective of the project is to address this nutritional deficiency in poor populations in India, Kenya and Tanzania. Almost all long-chain Omega-3 is produced by microalga in marine and freshwater ecosystems and thus fish are the predominant source of these nutrients in the human diet with farmed fish now accounting for around 50% of consumption. However, the only sources of Omega-3 for feeds for farmed fish are fishmeal and fish oil that are also finite and limited resources derived from wild fisheries. Projecting recommended dietary intakes for Omega-3 to a population of 7 billion shows a large gap between supply from fish/seafood (whether wild or farmed) and demand. Therefore, supply of Omega-3 for optimal human nutrition is a global problem that transcends geographical and political boundaries. Conventional plant proteins and vegetable oils do not contain long-chain Omega-3 but their precursor, ALA (short-chain omega-3), can be abundant in terrestrial and freshwater plants. In addition, many freshwater fish species including common carp and Nile tilapia have the metabolic capacity to convert dietary ALA to EPA and DHA. Therefore, one potential option for increasing the amount of Omega-3 available to human populations is to exploit the endogenous ability of freshwater fish species to produce EPA and DHA from ALA. Fish farming in India and Africa is dominated by carp and tilapia production - the species of greatest interest for the production of Omega-3 in farmed fish. Intensification of carp and tilapia aquaculture with associated increased use of supplementary and manufactured feeds provides the opportunity to enhance nutritional quality of the farmed products through higher Omega-3 contents derived from dietary ALA. This must be done sustainably and thus without the use of finite and/or expensive global commodities or competing with existing human food resources or animal feedstuffs represented by current agricultural crops. The aim of the present proposal is to improve Omega-3 status of farmed carp and tilapia in India and Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) for the benefit of poor local populations using indigenous, non-conventional feed ingredients. In this context, we aim to apply and expand current knowledge of nutrient and fatty acid compositions of a range of local, indigenous materials including freshwater plants, microbes and seaweeds and assess their availability, feasibility and potential as feed ingredients in terms of nutritional quality, supply level, and socio-economic viability. Selected novel ingredients will be tested in carp and tilapia feeding studies for ability to support growth, development and health of farmed fish and to enhance nutritional quality through increased the Omega-3 content. The potential of the novel feed ingredients for further widespread application and industrial and commercial scale-up will also be assessed in order to facilitate their exploitation as novel indigenous feed ingredients.

The fungus Aspergillus fumigatus is globally ubiquitous in the environment, being present on decaying vegetation and in soils, where it performs a valuable role in nutrient recycling. The fungus is a minimal health threat to healthy individuals. However, patients that suffer from cystic fibrosis, cancer or have received organ transplants and are undergoing corticosteroid therapy, are at risk from 'invasive aspergillosis'. Current estimates indicate that over 63,000 patients develop this fungal disease annually across Europe. The primary method for controlling infections is by administering azole antifungal drugs. However, we and others have shown a sharp increase in the resistance of A. fumigatus to frontline azole antifungals, with unacceptably high mortality rates in these at-risk patient groups. The mutations that confer resistance of A. fumigatus to these drugs appear to have evolved in the environment, rather than in the patient. Azole compounds are also used as fungicides to control crop diseases. This has led to the hypothesis that the widespread use in agricultural crops of azole antifungal sprays is leading to the environmental selection for resistance in A. fumigatus, which is then resulting in decreased patient survival following infection. Our project aims to examine this hypothesis by determining the relative proportions of azole-resistant and azole-sensitive A. fumigatus in the UK by sampling environmental populations using growth media containing antifungal drugs. This environmental exposure assessment approach will target a range of environments that have had high to low applications of crop-antifungals and will enable us to statistically examine whether there are links between the intensive use of these azole-based compounds in the environment and the occurrence of drug-resistant A. fumigatus. We will then use powerful technologies to sequence the genomes of many hundreds of A. fumigatus that are sensitive, or resistant, to azole antifungals. We already have numerous isolates pre-collected from around the world though a broad network of project partners, and we now know that there are two main azole-resistance mutations that widely occur. Our plan is to use our genome sequences and cutting-edge statistical genetic methods in order to determine when and where these mutations originated globally, use our newly isolated samples to test whether they occur within the UK environment and patient populations, whether they are spreading to invade new environments here and elsewhere, and whether novel undescribed resistance mutations exist. A. fumigatus is capable of sexual, as well as asexual, reproduction. In this case, the rate at which a newly-evolved resistance mutation can be integrated into new genetic backgrounds depends on the fertility of the A. fumigatus populations. In order to directly measure the 'sexiness' of the A. fumigatus populations, we will perform sexual crosses using sequenced isolates that represent not only the range of genetic diversity that we encounter, but also the range of azole-resistance mutations. By measuring the number and fitness of progeny, we will be able to determine the rate at which resistance mutations can recombine into new genetic backgrounds, and also discover unknown drug-resistance mechanisms. By addressing these questions, we will directly measure the risk that the use of antifungal compounds has on evolving resistance in non-target fungal species, and also answer important questions on the distance that these airborne fungi are able to spread and share genes with one another. Our findings will not only be of high relevance to health care professionals, directly informing diagnostic protocols and disease management in intensive-care settings, but will also inform current debates on the costs of widespread use of antimicrobial compounds in the environment. These goals all directly feed into NERCs new strategic direction 'The Business of the Environment'.

The air we breathe is teaming with microorganisms, with air currents transporting microbes globally. The earliest efforts to describe the distribution of airborne microbes were carried out by the founding father of microbiology, Louis Pasteur, over 125 years ago; but since then airborne microbes have been largely ignored. One reasons for this is that there are significant technical challenges in collecting airborne microorganisms,and thus microbial ecologists have focused on the low hanging fruit of soil and waterborne microorganisms. Even when efforts have been made to study airborne microorganisms, the research has been largely focused at a local/national level, but air pollution does not respect national boarders. Therefore, we have assembled a new network of world-leading experts in bioaerosols biomonitoring to take a global perspective on the ecology and human and environmental health effects of airborne microorganisms. Collectively, airborne microorganisms are referred to as bioaerosols, which is simply the fraction of air particles that are from a biological origin. Exposure to poor air quality is a major global driver of poor health, killing 1 in 8 people. Pollen is probably the best known example of a bioaerosol, which as an allogen, has a direct impact on public health. However, live bacteria, fungi, and viruses in the air pose a significant health risk through infectious respiratory diseases such as Legionellosis and Aspergillosis. The negative public health risks in themselves makes research into bioaerosols worthwhile. However, bioaerosols also play central roles in the life cycles of microorganisms, global ecology, and climate patterns. Analysis of bioaerosols at landscape scales has shown that even marine and terrestrial environments are connected over vast distances by exchange of bioaerosols. Indeed, it is well known that bioaerosols can be transported between continents on 'microbial motorways' in the sky (e.g. Saharan dust). Further to this, bioaerosols influence the climate by acting as nucleation forming particles and promoting precipitation. Due to the vast distances involved it is not possible to get the full picture from studies carried out at a local or national level, instead a global perspective is required to study these processes. A major recent methodological advancement in microbial ecology is the application of 'next generation sequencing' technology. Isolation of DNA from the environment and its analysis with high throughput sequencing has been a key tool in revolutionizing our understanding of the ecology of microbes from soil and water environments. Due to the lower concentrations of microorganisms in air samples this is technically challenging for bioaerosols. Consequently molecular methods are underutilised in bioaerosols research. Nevertheless a number of research groups across the globe have developed methods for molecular (DNA based) analysis of bioaerosols. However, a lack of standardisation between these methods makes it challenging to compare results and draw conclusions from combined datasets. This new network brings these experts together for the first time in order to standardise and further improve these methods. However, a key objective of this network is to make these methods more widely available. The largest burden of air pollution is in lower and middle income countries, where access to advanced molecular methods is limited. Through the network, researchers in lower and middle income countries can access these tools, pushing research forward where the need is greatest.