Development of new oilseeds for food and industrial applications. Study of lipids biosynthetic pathways in plants.

Study, purifiction and characterization of bioactive compounds from plant products

Improvement of plant oils production and quality, not only in their nutritional characteristics but also in their organoleptic and technological properties, as well as studies on their authenticity using DNA molecular markers. To achieve that, genomic, molecular, biochemical, and metabolic approaches are performed.

Characterization of the biosynthetic pathways of the components that determine the organoleptic and nutritional quality of plant foods, the assessment of changes going on during processing and conservation, and the development of technologies to improve the quality of the food.

The research group "Re-use of By-products and Treatment of Wastes and Wastewaters" of the "Instituto de la Grasa" (CSIC) of Seville develops since 1986 various lines of research related to the reuse and treatments of wastewaters and solid wastes from food processing industries.

Currently, the bakery sector faces important challenges within a scenario of continued loss of turnover and modification of distribution channels. This requires an important scientific-technical effort to implement the use of new raw materials, ingredients and microbial initiators that naturally provide unique properties and obtain maximum use in the design of innovative products.

Industrial yeasts responsible for biotechnological processes are highly specialized organisms that have evolved under restrictive conditions in different environments manipulated by man, a subject on which the group works.

Study at the molecular level of stress response of wine yeast during their industrial use, and its role in the fermentative efficiency. The group is mainly devoted to understand the response to oxidative stress and its relation ship to yeast life span.

Plant cell wall degrading enzymes (PCWDEs) produced by filamentous fungi have many industrial applications. Using Aspergillus nidulans as a genetic model system, our group conducts basic research on gene function and regulation as well as the characterization of unconventional protein secretion and sugar uptake/utilization to generate knowledge that could be used for the optimization of the production and secretion of PCWDEs. To this end we are using transcriptomics to elucidate components and regulatory mechanisms involved in the deconstruction and utilization of pectin.

The research group of non-conventional yeasts started in 2010 with the participation of Dr. Paloma Manzanares and Dr. Carmela Belloch. Currently, the IP is Dr. Carmela Belloch. Our research focuses on biotechnological and genetic characterization of food-relevant non-Saccharomyces yeasts. Yeast ecology and evolution along food production processes is a strong theme or research in our group as well as the study of genes and enzymes involved in aroma production for selection of yeasts as starter cultures.