December 10, 2008

Evogene Ltd. and Biogemma SAS have announced that field trials for corn hybrids containing a number of genes discovered by Evogene show significant yield increases under both normal and drought conditions.

The field trials, conducted in several sites in the US and in Israel, found that the corn hybrids containing the genes had better yield increases compared to control corn hybrids.

Evogene and Biogemma intend to expand their efforts to further evaluate the best performing of these genes in corn through additional field trials during 2009, aimed at selection of the most suitable candidates for the next phase of development towards commercialisation.

Included in the field trials were Evo133 and Evo137, two genes found by Evogene in 2003 to improve yield, and which were subsequently introduced into corn utilising Biogemma's technologies.

Headquartered in Rehovot, Israel, Evogene is a developer of improved plant traits. The company's current programmes focus on the improvement of key plant traits, such as yield and stress tolerance, and the improvement of plants specifically for biofuel uses.

Biogemma is a European biotech company involved in genomics applied to field crops. The company is developing R&D programmes with its partners, in field crops (corn, wheat, sunflower and rapeseed), focused on yield improvement, biotic and abiotic stresses and specialty grain compounds.