AgriBluBio in “Wissen – Leben”: Die Pflanzen impfen gegen Stress – Vaccinating plants against stress

Tim Zemlicka interviewed the AgriBluBio team for the December issue of “Wissen – Leben”, the monthly Newsletter of the University of Münster. Under the title “Geimpfte Pflanzen – Vaccinated Plants”. Our postdocs Dr. Anne Vortkamp, Dr. Carolin Richter, and Dr. Philipp Lemke, supported by their mentor Prof. Bruno Moerschbacher, discussed the background and the plans for the planned start-up AgriBluBio. We will use the knowledge and experience gathered in more than thirty years of research into structure-function relationships of chitosans, these precious biomolecules which can be harnessed from the chitin found in shrimp shell wastes. As plant biologists and phytopathologists, we had initially been interested in the role of fungal chitin in triggering the immune system of plants, and in the conversion of chitin into chitosan as a molecular stealth mechanism of fungal pathogenicity. Later, we began to explore the possibilities to use chitosan as a ‘vaccine’ to protect plants from diseases caused by fungi and other pathogens. While optimizing chitosans for their immunostimulatory potential, we serendipitously observed that some of them can ‘vaccinate’ plants against stress! When a heat wave struck the green houses in Southern Morocco where we tested different chitosans for their ability to protect tomatoes against disease, we observed that plants treated with one of the chitosans survived while all others died. Thus began our successful and still ongoing quest for chitosans with different plant protecting and plant strengthening bioactivities. A gold mine for AgriBluBio, for agriculture, for the environment, for consumers, and ultimately, for the planet.