BIO-ECO "Bioeconomy”

The BIO-ECO project, coordinated by the Department of Biology, Agriculture and Food Sciences of CNR, involves a multi-disciplinary team of researchers belonging to nine Institutes spread all over the country. IBBA activities cover:

• efficient use of natural resources and improvement of photosynthesis / resistance and tolerance of crop plants to abiotic stress (WP2);
• development and application of agricultural decision support systems (WP3);
• production of bioactive molecules from plants, microbes and plant cell cultures (WP4);
• aquatic freshwater plants and microalgae as alternative food sources (WP7).

FilAgro – Innovative and sustainable strategies for the agri-food chain

The FILAGRO project aims to provide solutions to several issues that are emerging in the field of modern agriculture. They concern: production sustainability, biodiversity and environment preservation; improvement in food quality, safety and healthy and nutritional aspects; technology development in favor of industry; new knowledge dissemination. These issues are highlighted as of high importance in the EXPO 2015 and Horizon 2020 programs as well as in the 2013-2015 plan of the Agriculture Directorate of the Lombardy Region.

RABoLa - Sustainable strategies to reduce the use of antibiotics in dairy farming

The project, which involves different departments of the University of Milan (DISAA, DIMEVET, VESPA), researchers from the CNR ISPA and CNR IBBA and the DIANA Department of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Piacenza, aims the primary identification of operative practices for reducing the use of antibiotics in the dairy cow herds. During the study, operative protocols already preliminary tested (administration of Aloe arborescens, use of Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris in pre and post dipping, molecules to inhibit Prototheca spp) will be validated during the entire lactation cycle of the cows.

This project will allow breeders to take advantages of new nutraceutical strategies and alternatives to the use of antibiotics, to enhance the innate defences and reduce the incidence and severity of mastitis. The validation of an effective protocol for the selective drying of animals would lead to a reduction of the preventive use of antibiotics, in line with what is requested at European level.

Genotyping of the Landolt Duckweed Collection

The project is aimed at the genotyping, through plastid and nuclear molecular markers (TBP), of the whole collection of small aquatic macrophytes (Lemnaceae) known under the name of Landolt Duckweed Collection and currently managed by Dr Lammler in Zurich. This historical collection, the largest in Europe, includes about 500 clones of the 36 known duckweed species, coming from five continents. Accessions have been mostly characterized on a morphological basis, which may cause a high rate of misclassifications in some species, owing to the simplified structure of these tiny plants and the high similarity between some species.

Since long used as environmental bioindicators, duckweeds and renowned for their phytoremediation capacity. Due to their extraordinary fast growth, duckweeds are one of the most promising new crops, under intensive study for energy production and as a source of high quality proteins for animal and human nutrition, already under evaluation as a novel food by EFSA.

Results will be useful to:

• ascertain the classification of all clones, many of which are under study in many laboratories worldwide
• evaluating inter and intraspecific biodiversity
• contribute to duckweed taxonomy
• understanding duckweed evolution.

BIO-MEMORY

The project is organized in 3 main activities:

1) Implementation and updating of the BioGenRes network of biobanks, with a focus on nationally/internationally recognized collections of animal, plant or microorganism species samples (animal and plant germplasm banks, microbial strain libraries of pathogenic/toxigenic organisms, nematodes, soil and water microflora and microorganisms used in agro-industry and food (e.g. microbial starters for fermentations)).

2) Replication (rejuvenation) and expansion of material stored in collections. For plant and microbial collections: multiplication of accessions for which a small amount of material is available and rejuvenation of accessions whose seed viability data are below the expected standards (> 85%). For animal collections of zootechnical interest: collection and freezing of genetic material of local breeds to complete sampling carried out in previous projects or expansion of the number of species and breeds stored in cryobanks.

3) Biochemical, molecular, metabolic, functional and phenotypic characterization of the material conserved in the biobanks of the BioGenRes network, also in order to carry out association studies and to identify markers associated with traits linked to production and/or adaptation to biotic and abiotic stress factors.

PRIN AGRITECH (SPOKE 1) - Plant, animal and microbial genetic resources and adaptation to climatic changes

Plant, animal and microbial genetic resources and adaptation to climatic changes

The resilience of agricultural and forest ecosystems under stressful conditions generated by climate change requires the enhancement and exploitation of genetic resources through state-of-the-art conservation strategies, combined with in-depth genome characterization and high-throughput phenotyping.

Activities include large-scale sequencing of accessions/breeds/strains, extensive marker-based genome descriptions, elucidation of the (pan)genome, deep phenotyping, and multi-omics characterization.

The resulting information, processed through advanced methods for the analysis, interpretation, archiving, and management of complex data, will highlight superior alleles/haplotypes, identify beneficial interactions across a variety of conditions, and define conservation units.

VELICA - From ancient material crops and products for the future

The project aims to study the possible re-introduction of traditional crops on the Lombardia territory such as hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) and flax (Linum usitatissimum L.), making their cultivation profitable again through the use of all the bioproducts obtainable from the various parts of the plant, eg: oil extracted from seeds, fiber, proteins, metabolites. In addition, the project also plans to enhance all the residues of the various transformations of hemp and flax, creating a range of bioproducts of considerable interests.

PNRR AGRITECH (SPOKE 8) - CIRCULAR ECONOMY in AGRICULTURE THROUGH WASTE VALORIZATION and RECYCLING

The research activity carried out at IBBA is part of Task 8.1.2 ‘Valorisation of waste through biotechnological processes to obtain high-value molecules or new products’ and focuses on the exploitation of photosynthetic organisms, such as microalgae (Chlorella sorokiniana and Chlorella vulgaris) and duckweeds (Lemna minor, Lemna gibba) for the treatment of dairy wastewaters coupled with the production of biomasses that can be valorised for their protein content and high added-value compounds.

The project also envisages the metagenomic characterisation of microbial consortia associated with the photosynthetic organisms during wastewater treatment and the isolation and characterisation of local microalgal strains from the dairy plant washing waters.

sPATIALS3 - Improvement of agrifood productions and innovative technologies for a safer and more secure and sustainable nutrition

sPATIALS3 is a technological and research hub involving 12 CNR Institutes belonging to 4 different Departments and 4 companies. Main objectives will be: obtainment of innovative food products improved for their nutritional and functional properties; provision and implementation of precision technologies to guarantee products quality, safety and traceability; development of innovative and eco-sustainable smart– and active-packaging to minimize and reuse wastes, where possible, and to increase food preservability; provision to consumers and producers of tools for results exploitation.

Ticino Park Producers

FHfFC - Future Home for Future Communities

TBP Analysis

FEEDCODE

A new platform for the genetic identification and quantification of the single plant  species, declared or not, present in animal feed, particularly livestock, had been developed and validated at European level.

SAFE&SMART

PNRR AGRITECH (SPOKE 9) - New technologies and methodologies for traceability, quality, safety, measurement, and certification to enhance and protect typicality in agri-food supply chains

Spoke 9 aims to conceive, design, test, and disseminate innovative digital solutions to understand the origin, authenticity, and guarantee the safety of agricultural products, with the aim of enhancing and protecting the unique characteristics of agri-food supply chains. Within Spoke 9, IBBA is involved in Task 9.11 (Chemical, Physical, Biological, Sensory, and Genetic methods and protocols for the measurement of product quality and traceability of food matrices and for soil characterization) and 9.1.5 (Modeling sustainability and quality of farm processes and food using on-farm and lab measurements).

In Task 9.1.1, IBBA aims to validate a genetic profiling method based on intron length polymorphisms of the β-tubulin (TBP) gene family for the authentication of olive and cereal cultivars supplied by partners.

In task 9.1.5, an in vivo study on cattle allows us to evaluate the effect of feed supplemented with natural substances on antibiotic resistance and the quality of milk produced, determining chemical and biofunctional parameters. Thanks to the collaboration with ISTI, the use of visible and hyperspectral imaging, combined with machine learning, is being investigated as a rapid, non-destructive, and cost-effective alternative to traditional laboratory chemical analyses for assessing milk quality.