idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Nachrichten, Termine, Experten

Grafik: idw-Logo
Science Video Project
idw-Abo

idw-News App:

AppStore

Google Play Store



Instance:
Share on: 
06/06/2018 13:01

Biodegradable crop protection products without risks or side effects

Dr. Ulrich Marsch Corporate Communications Center
Technische Universität München

    Traditional insecticides are killers: they not only kill pests, they also endanger bees and other beneficial insects, as well as affecting biodiversity in soils, lakes, rivers and seas. A team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now developed an alternative: A biodegradable agent that keeps pests at bay without poisoning them.

    "It's not just about the bees, it's about the survival of humanity," says Professor Thomas Brück, who heads the Werner Siemens Chair of Synthetic Biotechnology at TU Munich. "Without the bees that pollinate a wide variety of plants, not only would our supermarket shelves be quite bare, but within a short time, it would no longer be possible to supply the world's population with food."

    Synthetically produced insecticides endanger not only bees but also beetles, butterflies and grasshoppers. They affect biodiversity in soils, lakes, rivers and seas. Their use has consequently been highly controversial for many years.

    Repelling instead of poisoning

    Brück and his team have now found an alternative: The insect repellent they have developed is biodegradable and ecologically harmless. Sprayed on plants, it works much like mosquito repellent used by bathers in the summer, spreading a smell that keeps away unwanted insects.

    "With our approach, we are opening the door to a fundamental change in crop protection," says Brück. "Instead of spraying poison, which inevitably also endangers useful species, we deliberately merely aggravate the pests."

    Bacteria as chemical factories

    The Munich researchers were inspired by the tobacco plant, which produces cembratrienol in its leaves, CBTol for short. The plant uses this molecule to protect itself from pests.

    Using synthetic biotechnology tools, Professor Brück's team isolated the sections of the tobacco plant genome responsible for the formation of the CBTol molecules. They then built these into the genome of coli bacteria. Fed with wheat bran, a by-product from grain mills, the genetically modified bacteria now produce the desired active agent.

    Efficiency in small and large scales

    "The key challenge during production was to separate the active ingredients from the nutrient solution at the end of the process," explains Mirjana Minceva, Professor of Biothermodynamics at the TUM Weihenstephan Campus.

    The solution was centrifugal separation chromatography: a highly efficient process that works equally well on an industrial scale, but hitherto, had never been used to separate products from fermentation processes.

    Equally effective against bacteria

    Initial investigations indicate that the CBTol spray is non-toxic to insects, yet still protects against aphids. Since it is biodegradable, it does not accumulate.

    In addition, the bioactivity tests showed that cembratrienol has an antibacterial effect on gram-positive bacteria. It can thus be used as a disinfectant spray that acts specifically against pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA pathogen), Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumonia pathogen) or Listeria monocytogenes (listeriosis pathogen).

    Publication

    Wolfgang Mischko, Max Hirte, Simon Roehrer, Hannes Engelhardt, Norbert Mehlmer, Mirjana Minceva and Thomas Brück
    Modular Biomanufacturing for a Sustainable Production of Terpenoid-based Insect Deterrents
    Green chemistry, May 14, 2018 – DOI: 10.1039/C8GC00434J
    http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2018/gc/c8gc00434j#!divAbstract

    Further information:

    The project was funded by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Energy and Technology and the Werner Siemens Foundation. The research team used the equipment pool of the TUM Center for Industrial Biotechnology in Garching to do the technical scaling and validation of the cembratrienol production. The bioactivity tests were carried out in the Department of Biochemical Engineering of the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg.

    Contact

    Prof. Thomas Brück
    Technical University of Munich
    Werner Siemens Chair of Synthetic Biotechnology
    Lichtenbergstr. 4, 85748 Garching, Germany
    Tel.: +49 89 289 13253 – E-mail: brueck@tum.de
    Web: http://www.wssb.ch.tum.de/


    More information:

    https://www.tum.de/nc/en/about-tum/news/press-releases/detail/article/34679/ Link to the press release


    Images

    If aphids have the choice between wheat seedlings with (right) and without CBT-ol treatment (left), they avoid the treated seedlings.
    If aphids have the choice between wheat seedlings with (right) and without CBT-ol treatment (left), ...
    Images: W. Mischko / TUM
    None

    The CBT-ol was manufactured in this bioreactor at the TUM Research Center for Industrial Biotechnology.
    The CBT-ol was manufactured in this bioreactor at the TUM Research Center for Industrial Biotechnolo ...
    Image: A. Battenberg / TUM
    None


    Criteria of this press release:
    Journalists, Scientists and scholars, Students, all interested persons
    Biology, Chemistry, Environment / ecology, Zoology / agricultural and forest sciences
    transregional, national
    Research results, Scientific Publications
    English


     

    If aphids have the choice between wheat seedlings with (right) and without CBT-ol treatment (left), they avoid the treated seedlings.


    For download

    x

    The CBT-ol was manufactured in this bioreactor at the TUM Research Center for Industrial Biotechnology.


    For download

    x

    Help

    Search / advanced search of the idw archives
    Combination of search terms

    You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.

    Brackets

    You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).

    Phrases

    Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.

    Selection criteria

    You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).

    If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).