October 31, 2007

 

DuPont and Evogene team up for improved corn and soy trait

 

 

DuPont and Evogene Ltd. will collaborate to improve drought stress tolerance primarily in corn and soy.

 

DuPont business Pioneer Hi-Bred has exclusive rights to several genes discovered by Evogene for improving these traits. Financial terms of the agreement were undisclosed.

 

According to William S. Neibur, vice president for DuPont Crop Genetics Research and Development, the combined technologies of these two firms are expected to develop superior products that use water more efficiently for greater productivity, profitability and sustainability of the agricultural systems.

 

Drought causes global crop losses in excess of US$8 billion annually. High tolerance of corn and soy from drought will help maximise grower yield and income, as well as provide more grain for the food, feed, fuel and materials value chains.

 

The candidate genes were discovered by Evogene's most advanced in-silico gene discovery technology called the "ATHLETE." Pioneer will evaluate the licensed genes in its elite corn and soy germplasm to measure the benefit in its commercial products.

 

Ofer Haviv, Evogene president and CEO, said the collaboration reinforces "the value of our gene discovery and will help us determine the utility of our candidate genes.

 

Pioneer is taking multiple approaches to drought tolerance that include conventional breeding, molecular breeding and transgenic programs. The collaboration with Evogene is complementary to the drought tolerance work already under way at Pioneer.

 

Evogene's aims to be a major player in delivering improved plant traits to the agro-biotechnology and biofuel industries through the use of a continuously improving proprietary platform that combines state-of-the-art computational genomics, molecular biology and advanced breeding methods. Evogene's current product development portfolio includes such traits as: abiotic stress tolerance and yield, improving nitrogen use efficiency, enhancement of cotton fiber quality, increasing oil yield for the biodiesel industry and plant manufacturing of therapeutic proteins. Evogene was founded in 2002 as a spin-off of the agro-biotechnology division of Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN). Evogene's core in-silico technology, the ATHLETE, is based on Compugen's proprietary LEADS computational platform. Evogene completed an IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in June 2007. For additional information, please visit Evogene's website at www.evogene.com.

 

Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business, is the world's leading source of customized solutions for farmers, livestock producers and grain and oilseed processors. With headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, Pioneer provides access to advanced plant genetics in nearly 70 countries.

 

DuPont is a science-based products and services company. Founded in 1802, DuPont puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating in more than 70 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets including agriculture and food; building and construction; communications; and transportation.