Under the agreement, DuPont business, Pioneer Hi-Bred, and Evogene will collaborate to develop soybean varieties displaying in-plant resistance. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Soybean rust is a severe fungal disease, which causes significant yield losses that can reach up to 80% of the affected field. It is estimated that the yield losses caused by soybean rust exceed $1.5bn annually, the company said. Development of new rust resistant soybean varieties would help growers protect harvestable yield against rust, ultimately improving productivity of agriculture.
DuPont and Evogene will jointly generate a genomic database tailored to soybean rust resistance. Evogene will utilise its computational genomic technology, the Athlete, to identify novel genes predicted to improve soybean rust resistance.
Pioneer will use proprietary technologies to evaluate the genes in transgenic soybeans, and may advance leads for further development and commercialisation. Evogene will be entitled to receive milestone payments and royalties based on the sales of resulting products.
John Bedbrook, vice president, DuPont agricultural biotechnology, said: “Strong disease resistance has been a cornerstone to the growth of our Pioneer soybean business. Unique science from Evogene is going to help us more effectively tackle soybean rust.”
Ofer Haviv, Evogene’s president and CEO, said: “In addition to our well established and leading position providing novel genes for improving crop yields under normal and abiotic stress conditions, such as drought and reduced fertiliser utilisation, we are now increasing our efforts with respect to biotic stress conditions, where the crops are attacked by insects, fungi and other stresses.
“Therefore, we are very pleased to enter into this collaboration with Pioneer, one of the world’s largest seed businesses and a leading provider of soybean seeds, to utilise our advanced trait discovery technologies to address the important biotic stress condition of soybean rust.”
Source: DuPont
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