The Biological Chemistry and Biotechnology Group – GQBB at IQS participates in the CROPSAFE project, started in June 2025, with the participation of 12 partners from Norway, Denmark, UK, Italy, Belgium and Spain, and coordinated by the University of Alicante. The project is pioneering a holistic package of safe and sustainable bio-based alternatives to replace harmful chemical pesticides, securing the future of key European food crops. The project is funded by the European Commission, HORIZON-JU-CBE-2024, execution from June 2025 to May 2029.
CROPSAFE: Crop Protection Strategies for the Transition to Environmentally-Friendly Agriculture
The team at GQBB group at IQS works in this project for the production of tailored chitosans from the valorization of bio-based industrial residues as novel potential bioactives for sustainable crop protection
The CROPSAFE project addresses the critical challenge faced by European farmers as essential pesticides are withdrawn from the market due to environmental and health concerns. This leaves vital crops like potatoes, tomatoes, and bananas vulnerable to devastating pests such as Potato Cyst Nematode (PCN), Root Knot Nematode (RKN), Fusarium Wilt, and the Banana Weevil.
By transforming biological residues into potent bioactives, CROPSAFE is developing a new generation of biomass-derived crop protection products, based on a Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) approach for the transition to Environmentally-Friendly agriculture. Key innovations include: Valorisation of bio-based residues; Advanced Formulations and Delivery Systems; Understanding and Optimising Natural Mechanisms; Digital Decision Support Tools and Pan-European validation.
The new bio-actives will target pest and disease agents that threaten key Food Security crops (potato, tomato and banana). CROPSAFE developments will be disseminated, communicated to and exploited by appropriate Stakeholders.
First deliverable by the GQBB group at IQS in the CROPSAFE project
The objective of the CROPSAFE team at GQBB, composed by Prof. Antoni Planas (PI), Prof. Marc Carnicer, Dr. Giovanni Covaleda (postdoctoral researcher) and Marina Angulo (Bioprocesses Pilot Plant technician), is the production of tailored chitosans from the valorization of bio-based industrial residues as novel potential bioactives for sustainable crop protection. The team has accomplished the first deliverable at month 10 of the project, generating a library of enzymatically-modified chitosans as bioactive candidates.
Chitin is a highly abundant structural polysaccharide found in the exoskeleton of crustacea and insects and in the cell wall of fungi. Chitosans are produced by partial deacetylation of chitin, being a family of polycationic polysaccharides characterized by their degree of polymerization (DP) and degree of acetylation (DA). Among a wealth of applications, chitosans have great potential for plant protection in integrative pest management approaches in sustainable agriculture. However, most of the studies evaluating their biological effects have been performed with mixtures of products obtained by chemical deacetylation and depolymerization of chitin.
In this project, the GQBB group uses raw chitosans produced through the valorization of an existing industrial residual stream, namely Aspergillus niger biomass from the citric acid production industry. The aim is to develop a bioprocess with specific enzymes for the production of non-random and better defined chitosans of low and medium molecular size.
A library of different modified chitosans have been produced with varying degrees of acetylation and transferred to the other partners for evaluation of their bioactivities as antifungals and plant protectants for pest management applications.
Preliminary results indicate that at least one of the novel modified chitosans are highly active on primary screenings. The IQS researchers are now expanding the structural diversity of the compounds to optimize bioactivities. Once the selection of potential bioactive candidates is completed (at laboratory and green house assays), selected molecules will then be scaled up in the IQS Bioprocess Pilot Plant to provide enough quantities to our partners for formulations and field trial applications in banana, tomato and potato cultivars.
