Whether cereal, fruit or vegetable cultivation: agriculture is dependent on pesticides in many places. They should secure yields and thereby the supply of food to the people. But the use of pesticides is controversial because they not only kill off pests, but also harm people and nature. Now researchers have identified bacteria that can break down the herbicide linuron.

During the brewing of beer, many residues accumulate. For example, an average of 20 kilograms of spent grains are produced per hectoliter of beer.  With regard to the annual beer production in Germany, this is about two million tons of spent grains and about one million tons of spent grains press water. These residues contain valuable substances, some of which are used in agriculture as animal feed, but the majority ends up in waste. Researchers want to change that.

In nature there is a permanent, seemingly invisible battle: Whether in the soil, in water or on our skin - microorganisms compete for nutrients almost everywhere. Some microbes use chemical weapons and secrete substances that harm other microbes. For example, bacteria of the genus Streptomyces produce azalomycins, which kill other unicellular organisms, but also cells of higher organisms such as the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. However, it has found an unusual protector, as a German research team now reports in

Wheat is one of the most important food plants. Many foods from bread to pizza to beer are made from the grain. But many people suffer from a wheat intolerance, the coeliac disease. They are allergic to the wheat protein gluten. The number of people suffering from coeliac disease has risen sharply in recent years. Up to 1% of adults are affected.

It is impossible to imagine everyday life without plastic. However, the production and disposal of plastics is increasingly polluting the environment because they consist largely of petroleum and are difficult to break down. The bioeconomy therefore focuses on bioplastics that consist of renewable raw materials or residual and waste materials. Producing bioplastics requires by no means only state-of-the-art technologies and processes. The ingredients for an environmentally friendly plastic can also be found in every household.

Sandalwood oil is usually extracted from the wood and roots of the white sandalwood tree. It grows mainly in tropical regions like India and needs 30 years to reach full ripeness. But the plant is threatened by massive overexploitation and is already on the Red List of the World Conservation Union. With Santalol, BASF and Isobionics are now launching an alternative to sandalwood oil.

Nature's biodiversity harbors an almost immeasurable treasure of biologically active substances that can be of benefit to humans. A well-known example is the antibiotic penicillin, which is extracted from the mold Penicillium chrysogenum. Less known is the antibiotic Erogorgiaene. It is produced in small quantities by the horn coral Antillogorgia elisabethae. A team from the TU Munich has now succeeded with international partners in producing this active ingredient in bacteria.