Auckland, New Zealand
17th January 2002

Genesis Research and Development Corporation Limited (NZSE/ASX: GEN) and Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd today announced a joint venture discovery programme focusing on the genetics of Botrytis cinerea - the parasitic “grey mould” fungus that causes diseases on a wide variety of food crops.

While botrytis produces the famous noble rot, prized by winemakers for the characteristic flavour it imparts to dessert wines, it is also a major pathogen attacking most dicotyledonous plants - including kiwifruit, berryfruit, and glass house crops - especially in temperate regions throughout the world.

The 50-50 joint venture will make use of Genesis’ genomic capabilities and Landcare Research’s expertise in fungal biology to discover a range of controls for botrytis and, potentially other fungi.

While the initial aim of the JV is to develop a non-GMO control suitable for application to crops close to harvest, the ultimate target is broader. The partners anticipate that the pathway being targeted to develop a fungicide active against botrytis may also be common to other fungal species, leading to further potential uses in controlling different fungi in plants, animal and human health.

The JV will build the first comprehensive expressed sequence tag (EST) database of the Botrytis cinerea fungus. Once the database is established it will be mined using bioinformatics tools to isolate targeted genetic information and identify potential opportunities to develop new mechanisms to control the fungus.

The companies have identified areas of cellular signalling that are fundamental to the fungus. The knowledge of these important signalling processes provides the route they will use to research the discovery of a botrytis control agent.

While botrytis affects a wide variety of fruit and floral crops, the initial target will be the international wine industry. In France alone, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year to combat this pathogenic agent. Currently synthetic fungicides are most commonly used to combat botrytis, however fungicide resistance is now widespread.

Genesis will contribute its expertise in research and development, genomics and proteomics. Landcare
Research brings expertise in bioassays, fungal strains and treatment applications.

“What makes this approach novel is the combination of Genesis’ post genomics expertise and Landcare Research’s expertise in fungi to identify potential control mechanisms," said Genesis Chief Executive, Dr Jim Watson. “Pooling our knowledge and resources makes best use of the complementary capabilities within the two organisations to explore opportunities for developing controls  for the botrytis fungus."

“This JV is a great example of partnership between a Crown Research Institute and a private sector R&D company," said Dr Andy Pearce, Landcare Research Chief Executive. “We are focused on a particular target and using the strengths and skills of our two organisations to do things that neither of us could do as well on our own."

Genesis and Landcare Research will jointly own the intellectual property developed through the partnership, and will protect this by patenting their research findings.

Founded in 1994, Genesis is a New Zealand-based biotechnology company committed to the building of a broad genomic platform for the development of innovative products in health and plant biotechnology. Genesis partners with industry leaders to develop products that have global market potential through the mining of its extensive microbe, plant and mammalian EST databases. Genesis has three programmes in human clinical development, with additional programmes in pre-clinical development and in plant biotechnology.

Landcare Research is an independent Crown Research Institute specialising in sustainable management of land resources for production, conservation, business and community. Our research, consultancy and technology developments are focused on the most important environmental issues to ensure we deliver maximum benefit to New Zealand. Landcare Research also seeks to develop new technology-based businesses from its strategic research activities.