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Commercial exploitation of chicory as a multipurpose crop updates
CHIC is the Chicory Innovation Consortium. The project’s main objectives are 1) to implement New Plant Breeding Techniques (NPBTs) in chicory in order to establish it as a multipurpose crop for the production of health-related products with clear benefits for consumers, and 2) to develop co-innovation pathways with stakeholders for game-changing technologies, such as NPBTs.
The overall objective of Work Package 8 (WP8) is to develop an exploitation strategy built on two strong business cases for NPBT based on high-quality dietary fiber and bioactive terpenes from chicory.
Specific objectives are:
- To demonstrate improved functionality of inulin from NPBT chicory in gut fermentation models
- To demonstrate bioactivity of terpenes from chicory using advanced cell-based assays
- To demonstrate the exploitation potential of the most promising NPBT chicory variants via business cases
Updates
Both improved inulin and terpene fractions were subjected to in-vitro bioactivity and safety evaluation and business cases for both lines will finally be created. Two types of NPBT chicory mutants have been generated and analysed: one type of mutations targeted to inulin breakdown genes (FEH knock-out, WP2) and the other for germacrene synthase A (CiGAS knock-out, WP1/WP2). Both have been studied for their terpene and inulin quality and quantity compared to commercial chicory. For studying the anti-inflammatory effects of chicory terpenes, a physiologically relevant model of the inflamed intestinal mucosa was developed. Two particularly interesting chicory extracts were assessed and strong antimicrobial potential was observed – antifungal as well as antibacterial activity towards antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Finally, a new multi-ingredient process was investigated, based on a selective adsorption column for terpenes. A conceptual process design yielding capex/opex details indicated that the sales price for the terpene mixture is in line with specialty ingredient prices, in food supplements. Currently, three scientific papers are being prepared based on the results obtained partly in WP8.
More news about this project:
XI International Agriculture Symposium – AGROSYM 2020
In the article “Metabolic Engineering in Chicory by CRISPR/Cas9 Editing”, presented at the XI International Agriculture Symposium “AGROSYM 2020”, held virtually on 8-9th of October 2020, a recently popular gene editing technique was used to alter chicory genes involved in the metabolism of bitter compounds that belong to the group of terpenoids.
What does young generation think about gene editing?
Since the CHIC project’s inception 30 months ago, several essential steps and first results continue to arise and become available for the general public. More plants are being evaluated, and a variety of methods for testing safety purposes are in development, in the belief that CHIC will bring healthy and safe products to consumers. Even at the onset of regulatory changes in genome-edited plants, the project is moving forward to achieve what the scientists set out to do.
CHIC vs. Covid-19
In CHIC we join the fight against coronavirus and want to research whether compounds from the root of chicory can be developed into drugs against the virus. We are looking for research partners to test this activity. If you need more information, please write us through our contact form.
