Objective
Chicory (Cichorium intybus) is a biennial crop native in Europe, which is traditionally grown for use as a coffee substitute or chicorydrink or for use in the sugar industry. Current area under production for "sugar chicory" is 15,000 ha concentrated in Belgium, France and the Netherlands. The tap roots contain inulin - a fructose polymer - that is used for food products a.o. as a starting material for fructose syrup. Inulin however holds high potential for non-food applications. The non-food industry is in need of new ingredients like inulin and offers a great market potential. Of the few inulin producing crops known, chicory inulin holds the best potential in terms of agricultural and industrial exploitation. However, the current properties of the inulin in the native chicory crop do not yet meet the requirements related to processing and chemical modification, necessary for successful application in nonfood industry. The main obstacle is the low degree of polymerization (DP) of the native chicory inulin.
This project aims to upgrade the quality and volume of chicory inulin through genotype improvement focussing on the increase of the mean degree of polymerization from the current value of 10 (low DP) to a value between 20 and 100 (High DP) . By introducing into native chicory a set of three genes originating from the same Asteraceae plant family, inulin metabolism will be induced to produce the targeted High DP inulin. Research activities concentrate on the selection of appropriate (wild) Asteraceae species; the isolation of genes or a combination of genes followed by the actual transformation of the native chicory into a transgenic chicory. The transformation will be done along two lines of which the first one will result in agronomically tested transgenic chicory seed during the third year of this project. The second line will be released for agronomic testing by the end of the fourth year. Next to the transformation activities the project will assess the functional properties of High DP inulin from both subfractioned HDP inulin as well as the transgenic chicory inulin for use in several markets in the non-food industry.
These experiments will result from the third year onwards in the decision by the chicory processing industry to make major investments in this new crop and the processing facilities. From an agronomic point of view, chicory is a welcome addition to crop rotation schemes. It does not require much nitrogen, is more drought resistant than sugarbeet and grows well on a large variety of soil types ranging from clay to sand. It is a familiar crop to sugar beet growers because cultivation as well as the related mechanization is similar to that of sugar beet. Processing facilities for roots are similar to that of the sugar industry. A major economic benefit connected to the introduction of chicory as a high value non-food crop is the fact that the product of non-food chicory inulin is not limited by the sugar or fructose related quota agreement and therefore opens new possibilities for (sugar beet) farmers to diversify as well as to expand their farming activities. Development of rural communities in both the traditional chicory growing areas as well as in new European countries is foreseen. Furthermore employment opportunities in the chicory seed and processing industries will increase. By upgrading chicory from a currently marginal food crop to a multifunctional high value crop this project will give a new impulse to both European agriculture and agro-industry. The participants in the research consortium represent the European chicory seed industry, - processing industry and growers as well as research institutes specialized in chicory, fructan and inulin research.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences polymer sciences
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
- social sciences economics and business business and management employment
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Coordinator
6700 WAGENINGEN
Netherlands
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