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Rehovot, Israel and Paris, France
December 9, 2008
Evogene Ltd. (TASE: EVGN) and
Biogemma SAS today
announced results of field trials for corn hybrids containing a
number of genes predicted by Evogene to increase yield and
drought tolerance. The field trials, conducted in several sites
in the United States and in Israel, demonstrate that corn
hybrids containing certain of these genes displayed significant
yield increases under both normal and drought conditions
compared to control corn hybrids under the same conditions.
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
commercialization.\
The field trials for which results
are now being reported were conducted as part of a collaboration
initiated in 2006 between Evogene and Biogemma to develop corn
with improved yield and tolerance to drought conditions. This
collaboration is financially supported by the Eureka, a
pan-European network for market-oriented industrial R&D.
Included in the field trials were Evo133 and Evo137, two genes
predicted by Evogene in 2003 to improve yield and drought
through the use of its computational technology platform, the
'ATHLETE', and subsequently validated in model plants. These
genes were introduced and expressed in corn utilizing Biogemma’s
technologies. These positive results in corn follow Evogene's
announcement of December 2007 of field trial results for Evo133
demonstrating significant yield improvements in tomato plants
under both normal and stress conditions.
Ofer Haviv, Evogene’s President and CEO stated, "We are
extremely pleased by these successful results from this first
field trial of Evogene discovered genes in one of the most
important crops worldwide for both food and alternative energy
uses. Also, in addition to the potential value represented by
these genes for corn and other crops, this is a significant
milestone for our company in the validation of the ability of
our unique in silico discovery platform - the 'ATHLETE' – to
accurately predict and select genes associated with important
traits of interest in agbio. Therefore, we enthusiastically look
forward to continuing our joint efforts with Biogemma in corn
and with our other partners, as we move forward with both
further gene discovery and the validation of Evogene discovered
genes in important target crops.”
Pascual Perez, CEO for Biogemma stated, “We are very happy with
these first year field trials showing important preliminary
results for yield improvement under normal and drought
conditions. Next year's experiments which will be done in more
geographic locations are looked with high interest. Our corn
genetic transformation pipeline and its specific proprietary
technologies has allowed Biogemma to quickly and properly assess
Evogene’s leads in different hybrid backgrounds within two years
of the initiation of our fruitful collaboration. When the
collaboration was initiated in 2006, combining Biogemma’s and
Evogene’s expertise seemed extremely promising and we see today
that the good complementary skills , the two companies’ know how
and IP portfolio open the way to develop commercial improved
corn for our shareholders. Biogemma will continue to rely on its
efficient transgenic platforms for corn and wheat, to give value
to the genes discovered on our genomic platforms or developed in
partnerships."
Evogene is a world leading developer of improved plant
traits. The company’s proprietary product development platform
combines state of the art computational gene discovery
technology (The 'ATHLETE'), plant and field validation
capabilities and unique selection systems. Evogene's current
programs focus on the improvement of key plant traits, such as
yield and stress tolerance, and the improvement of plants
specifically for biofuel uses. Evogene has collaboration and
licensing agreements with world leading companies in the
agro-biotech and alternative energy industries. Evogene's
headquarters are in Rehovot, Israel, and its stock is traded on
the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE:EVGN).
Biogemma is a leading biotech company in Europe involved in
Genomics applied to Field crops. Result of the merger of the
biotech activity of three major seed business companies,
Vilmorin Company ( Limagrain Group), Euralis and RAGT and with
the help of two financial institutions Sofiproteol and Unigrain
with the support of the technical agency Arvalis , the company
is developing R&D programs with its partners, in field crops (
Corn, Wheat, Sunflower and Rapeseed ), focused on yield
improvement, biotic and abiotic stresses and specialty grain
compounds.
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