Rosemary, that unmistakable frequent aromatic plant in the culinary world, is also a great protector for crops against pathogens, as demonstrated a team led by María Rosa Marano, from IBR, CONICET-UNR. These results led the group to integrate an international consortium together with European Union (EU) countries and the Irish company Bioatlantis, which has a financing of one million euros until 2027, by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions program ( MSCA-Staff Exchange) of the European Commission.
CropPrime, as this alliance was called, seeks to reach the formulation of a commercial product based on a synergistic mixture of compounds of natural origin, which constitutes a non -toxic and friendly alternative with the environment. “We propose to generate new technologies that can be used as bio -stimulants or protectors against different types of biotic stress, caused by viruses, bacteria and fungi, or abiotic, caused by extreme temperatures or little water availability,” says Marano.
Natural compound factories #
The knowledge about the properties of plants for the treatment or prevention of diseases and discomforts has been transmitted in different cultures since ancient times, and has become the basis of much of traditional medicine. More than fifty thousand compounds of plant origin have been identified that exhibit a wide range of biological activities. But why do plants generate this diversity of substances? Unlike animals, plants have a secondary metabolism that allows them to produce and accumulate compounds of very diverse chemical nature. These secondary metabolites are important for the survival of plants, since they have a fundamental role in adaptation to environmental stress and defense against predators and pathogens.
The species Salvia Rosmarinus, as the rosemary is called in the scientific field, has gained importance in the field of research for its attributes as anti -inflammatory, microbicide and antioxidant. It has been proven that these effects are given by the most abundant secondary metabolites in the plant: carnosic acid, carnosol and rosmarinic acid. The latter is the main component of Rosmarinus’s aqueous extract and “has been very investigated in relation to human health; Today there are many products that include it as an antioxidant in the cosmetic industry. However, we are the first and perhaps the only group to test the effect that this acid has on other plants,” says Lucila García, biotechnologist and researcher at CONICET in the IBR.
A vaccine for plants #
Marano says that, when they began with this line of research, they first chose to work with diseases caused by viruses in the plants, “because there is no chemical agent to avoid viral propagation in crops.” Taking as a model the tobacco necrosis virus (TVNA), she says: “We find an important effect of the application of rosemary extract in the development of viral disease, reducing symptoms.” They were able to verify that this effect is different from the microbicidal action that had been described in animal cells or against human pathogens. “In plants, it has a protective effect, which prepares them and increases its defense response at the time the plant undergoes stress,” says García. Marano synthesizes: “acts as a kind of vaccine.” Working with other pathogens and plants could also demonstrate that protection is effective in the case of diseases caused by citrus bacteria or soy fungi, suggesting that “there is an extended action that is independent of the pathogen and plant,” García says.
However, Marano states, not any rosemary plant generates an extract with these characteristics, because “the secondary metabolites change depending on the variety of rosemary and the climatic conditions in which the plant is developed.” These results were obtained by working with a Creole variety, from Concarán, province of San Luis. “The INTA provides us with the plants and in collaboration with the Faculty of Biochemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the UNR we carry out the extracts that we then use in the trials, which also had the financing of the Williams Foundation.”
CropPrime: an exchange network #
The objective of these initiatives of the European Union is to meet specific themes through the formation of consortiums with a common objective. “In this case it would be to look for alternatives to the use of agrochemicals generating new formulations, based on different natural extracts that protect biotic and abiotic stress crops,” says García, and adds: “It is a condition that the different working groups are in developing countries that include a private company.”
CropPrime is made up of laboratories of the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Belgium and South Africa that bind to the one directed by Marano in IBR and the Biotechnological Development Company Bioatlantis based in Ireland. The company has sixteen years of market experience and are pioneers in applying “Priming” technology, which involves the use of bioactive substances that stimulate a molecular response in crops and prepares them to face stress situations. “In Argentina, producers use several of the bio -stimulants developed by the company,” says Marano, and emphasizes that collaborating with so many European research groups in the construction of this purpose in common is very valuable. “In each laboratory there are certain objectives to be met; within the project we are also testing the rosemary with algae and fungal extracts,” says Marano.
However, Pavel Kerchev, a member of the Consortium and researcher at the Mendel University in Brno (Czech Republic), reveals that based on the good results that the rosemary has given, “today much of the work we do in CropPrime is around to understand how rosmarinic acid works.”
The MSCA-Staff Exchange is part of Horizone Europe (the EU financing program for research and innovation) and bets on the exchange of training experiences of project members. Two years after the project, there are ten people who have traveled and carried out stays in another member laboratory of the Consortium. Among them, three have arrived at IBR from Belgium, and the Czech Republic and three have started from Argentina to work at least three months outside the country. “The professional and personal growth of the students we have received is notorious and from our students who travel,” says Marano. “The most favored by this program are young fellows and researchers who may have the opportunity to add temporarily to other research teams and learn specific techniques that then have application in their work issues,” adds the researcher. Meanwhile, Kerchev highlights the exchange between academia and industry professionals: “This transfer of knowledge and ideas points to creative development. Creating better prepared and trained professionals for the future, who promote technological innovation, ”and that was for this project we were interested because we knew the IBR and CONICET reputation,” he says.
To García to generate this networking, it is very important, because the ‘community spirit’ of scientific activity stands out, and affirms that it is in connection with others that can advance faster. “You have to be willing to diversify, give space and be receptive to enrich yourself,” he concluded.
Citation #
Martin, A. P., Martínez, M. F., Chiesa, M. A., Garcia, L., Gerhardt, N., Uviedo, F., … & Marano, M. R. (2023). Priming crop plants with rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus Spenn, syn Rosmarinus officinalis L.) extract triggers protective defense response against pathogens. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, 197, 107644.Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/11336/223165
- The article El prometedor hallazgo sobre la planta de romero que abre puertas a una vinculación tecnológica con la Unión Europea was written by Elizabeth Karayakov-IBR communication area (CONICET-UNR).