GOODBYO - Multi-commodities microbial-driven BiOrefinery based on food-processing industry wastes, biogenic CO2 and bioprocess wastewaters (HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023)

GoodByO aims to develop a new generation of biorefinery system that integrate agri-food waste, biogenic CO₂ and bioprocess wastewater to produce bioproducts.

The project will implement this visionary concept at the bio-plant of Dutch company ChainCraft BV, in order to exploit gaseous and liquid residues as sustainable raw materials at zero cost. Thanks to the metabolic diversity of microbial catalysts, GoodByO will develop and validate four different microbial factories at TRL5.

The project will also design an in silico renewable energy model capable of supporting the variable energy demand of the entire system integrated over time, exploiting the biomethanation process as an energy grid balancing system. GoodByO will produce bio-octanoic acid, bio-hexanol, carotenoids, microbial proteins and organic fertilisers in order to meet growing market demand at competitive prices compared to benchmarks.

The ultimate goal is to encourage end-user companies to replace fossil oil and palm oil-based products with bio-based ones, helping to increase the EU’s global leadership in the manufacturing industry and also advancing the biotechnology sectors for CO₂ capture and utilisation.

ANAFI - Analysis of genetic variability and haplotype at protein milks loci aimed at protecting biodiversity and producing diversified milks

The objective of this project was to analyse how the frequencies of the main casein variants and haplotypes changed in the Italian Holstein breed, and the possible effects on milk technological properties (milks more suitable for dairy processing, with potential greater digestibility). The results obtained by the genotyping (Illumina beadchip) of all the historical data available (over 220,000 Italian Holstein Friesian individuals and over 600 Italian Jersey individuals) were analysed in order to verify how the allele frequencies to the casein genes have been changing in recent years. The results indicate that the increase of the B allele, favourable for cheese-making, and the decrease of the unfavourable E allele at the k-casein are compensating the increase of the A 2 allele at the β-casein, generally maintaining a good proportion of haplotypes associated with good cheese-making properties.

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.

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.

RECUPEVO - RECUperation and enhancement of the Lombard ecotype PEperone di VOghera

The RECUPEVO project aims to contribute to the recovery of an ancient variety of sweet pepper typical of the Lombardy region of Italy, the “Peperone di Voghera“. The activities are aimed at stabilizing and standardizing the valuable qualitative attributes of this variety, enhancing its agronomic and organoleptic characteristics, as well as helping its registration in the Conservation Variety Register or Biodiversity Registry, to protect the brand and name “Peperone di Voghera”. This will promote its inclusion in the List of Traditional Agri-food Products of the Lombardy Region

A recent problem with this variety has been the appearance of spicy fruits which are indistinguishable from the typically sweet ones. To address this within the RECUPEVO project, IBBA-CNR studies allelic variants in candidate regions for the production of capsaicinoids, the compounds responsible for the level of spiciness of the berry, through amplification of genomic regions of interest from spicy and sweet individuals, and subsequent amplicon sequencing with Illumina technology. Genotypic differences may reveal the cause of the activation of the biosynthetic pathway of capsaicin and allow the development of molecular markers for the selection of non-spicy individuals.