September 12, 2008
Monsanto Co. said Thursday ( September 12, 2008) that it's made a genetic blueprint of its top-performing female corn lines.
Monsanto, which develops genetically modified crop seeds, said the results will help the St. Louis-based company engineer better performing seeds.
The discovery was made with DNA sequencing methods, as well as data from the maize genome project.
"These sequencing efforts will not only identify preferred genes for our research and development pipelines, but move us into a high-definition molecular breeding era that uses a combination of sequence and markers to derive future higher-yielding hybrids globally," Chief Technology Officer Robert Fraley said in a statement.
The company hopes to double its annual gross profit in four years by developing GM crops resistant to pests, herbicides and drought.