Natural substance with herbicide potential - 10/12/2020 The same but different: What makes sugar 7Sdh a better herbicide? The sugar 7-deoxy-sedoheptulose (7dSh) is produced by cyanobacteria and inhibits the same metabolic pathway as the broad-spectrum herbicide glyphosate, thus making it an excellent herbicide candidate. Despite this amazing similarity, the microbiologist who discovered 7dSh, Prof. Dr. Karl Forchhammer, believes that this sugar has clear ecological advantages over glyphosate.
Phosphorus recovery from sewage sludge - 21/10/2020 Bacteria help to recycle phosphorus Biotechnology for the bioeconomy: in something known as the P-bac process, sulphur bacteria extract phosphorus from sewage sludge ash. Phosphorus is one of the key building blocks of life and an essential nutrient for plant growth. When there is not enough phosphorus in the soil, farmers apply it via organic or mineral fertilisers.
CRISPR/Cas9 and genetic engineering laws - 27/11/2019 Transgene-free plant breeding using genome editing Plant geneticists from Tübingen have used genome deletion to breed a variety of tomato that is resistant to powdery mildew. The CRISPR/Cas9 technology that they used enabled them to achieve this in a relatively short period of time. They also demonstrated beyond any doubt that the new tomato variety contains no foreign DNA and is indistinguishable from naturally occurring deletion mutants.
Bionics - 24/11/2016 Plants as models for self-repairing materials It’s a great idea: everyday products that can repair themselves. Although it’s still a pipedream, the foundations are already being laid in a series of investigations being carried out by Dr. Olga Speck from the University of Freiburg. Dr. Speck is a botanist who is studying wound-healing reactions in plants to try and find mechanisms that can be used as models for developing materials with “self-healing powers”.
Article - 11/10/2016 Nanofur for cleaning up accidental oil spills in water Accidental oil spills such as those following oil disasters need to be cleaned up as quickly as possible. Researchers from the KIT in Karlsruhe have now developed an environmentally friendly process that can eliminate oil spills effectively. Nanofur is a material that imitates the fine hairs of aquatic ferns and is capable of absorbing large amounts of oil within a relatively short time.
Article - 16/08/2016 Learning from wild grapevines Grapevines are treated with pesticides more frequently than any other crop. Peter Nick from the Botanical Institute at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is pursuing an ambitious goal: sustainable viticulture rather than toxins. Sustainable viticulture takes into account plants’ natural capacities of resistance. Nick uses the European Wild Grape, the ancestor of cultivated grapevine varieties, for his research as the plant is able to…
Retrospective - 07/07/2016 Kick-off meeting of the Special Interest Group (SIG) for Marketing, Communication, Ecobalance and Sustainability Experts from various industries met in Stuttgart on 15th June 2016 to kick off the Special Interest Group (SIG) for Marketing, Communication, Ecobalance and Sustainability, which is the second of four SIGs that will be established under the auspices of the ”Akteursplattform Bioökonomie Baden-Württemberg”.
Article - 19/05/2016 Programme to train bioeconomy experts BBW ForWerts, the graduate programme within Baden-Württemberg’s strategic Bioeconomy Research Programme, offers PhD students a three-year interdisciplinary curriculum to work on their own research project and gain insights into other bioeconomy-related research priorities. The interdisciplinary approach, which also includes working with industrial partners and research institutions, provides students with the knowledge required for making the…