Innovative Access to Biomass-Based Chitooligosaccharides and their Derivatives for Agrochemical Applications – BioCOS

In a world engaged in vital transformations, it is essential that we invent new development strategies. The expected conjugated growth of global population and of the median development level of this population in the next decades will lead to an increase in demand (food, energy, raw materials), which will inevitably increase pressure on the environment (pollution by byproducts, waste, greenhouse gases, fertilizers, …). Reduction of this impact, together with the desire of decreasing society’s dependence on fossil carbon sources, has directed researchers’ attention towards the use of biomass as a renewable ressource. Further, reduction of the use of fertilizers and pesticides, via their replacement by new, bio-inspired, growth promoters, might prove an efficient way to limit soil, water, and atmosphere pollution, while maintaining sufficient crop supply in a global economy.

Our project targets the use of chitin, which is one of the most abundant naturally occurring polymer, and also a major byproduct of the shrimp and crab industry, as a starting material for the elaboration of high added-value biologically active and well-defined chitooligosaccharides (COS), via environmentally-friendly processes. These compounds or their derivatives can have numerous biological activities. This includes the fascinating activity of nodulation factors, LipoChitoOligosaccharides (LCOs) exhibiting growth promoting properties on various types of crops, at a concentration which reduces their potential environmental impact to almost zero. The biological activity of our products, as well as their potential technology transfer, will be evaluated by the industrial partner of the consortium: Bayer CropScience.

An easy and much improved access to LCOs will be developed. Presently, availability of LCOs and their chitooligosaccharidic precursors (ChitoOligoSaccharides, COS) is the critical issue worldwide, and chemical or biochemical means have only enabled access to limited quantities of such compounds so far. Furthermore, it is difficult to get these compounds, which are also produced by Nature as mixtures, in pure form. Our project intends to transform chitin, and chitin-derived chitosan, by using recent advances in synthetic and enzymatic chemistry. Accessing scaffolds controlled both in size and substitution pattern is the core of the project. The major goal is to study and provide routes to these compounds in gram quantities, which will be a very significant achievement in comparison with the state of the art in this domain. This would allow treating fields in the range of one million hectares.

The objective is to decrease the use of fertilizers by at least 10% while maintaining the same culture yield. We will also evaluate the impact on the reduction of plant protection compounds, although it is more difficult to estimate with the scarce knowledge currently available. Our focus will initially concentrate on crops of major interest, such as corn, wheat, and soybean whereby seeds could be treated with such compounds.

It is expected from this project that an easy access to compounds able to stimulate plant growth will be discovered. These molecules could represent very useful “green chemicals” for agricultural use.