Aleurone Corporation today announced the completion of a licensing agreement with BASF Plant Science GmbH for its use of Aleurone’s patented agricultural biotech/genetic engineering technology, which covers any cereal plant that expresses a foreign protein predominantly in the storage portion of the seed.

This pattern of expression is commonly referred to as “endosperm specific”.  Expression of foreign proteins in cereal endosperm has great utility in efforts to alter nutritional characteristics of the grain, as well as for expression of commercially valuable enzymes and pharmaceutical proteins.

Aleurone exclusively licensed U.S. patent 5,677,474 from Washington University in St. Louis in January, 1988.