St. Louis, Missouri and Durham,
North Carolina
January 27, 2009
New collaboration aims to
expand seed-based technologies, benefit farmers
As farmers look to get more out of
each acre of farmland, St. Louis-based
Monsanto is exploring
unique ways to discover and deliver more desirable traits
through the seed. Monsanto's new collaboration with GrassRoots
Biotechnology Inc. is expected to do just that by expanding the
benefits of Monsanto's research and product portfolio for its
farmer customer.
Today, Monsanto announced that it has established a three-year
collaboration with
GrassRoots Biotechnology Inc., based in Research Triangle
Park, North Carolina, to source novel genetic elements,
including promoters and genes, which can enable crops to express
traits that enhance and protect yield.
Promoters are segments of DNA that determine when and where a
trait is expressed within a plant. Monsanto will use the
promoters sourced from GrassRoots in a broad range of crops,
including corn, soy, cotton and canola, to optimize an array of
biotechnology traits.
GrassRoots is a start-up company co-founded by Duke University
professor, Philip Benfey, a leader in plant biology research.
GrassRoots uses a variety of methods, including computational
approaches, to identify promoter candidates. Once specific
promoter sequences are identified, the information can be
further used to design novel promoters for the expression of
desirable traits in plants.
"The availability of high-quality promoters with specific
expression patterns for use in commercial products is limited,
so there is value in developing novel promoters to drive new
traits," said Steve Padgette, vice president of biotechnology
for Monsanto.
"A robust promoter toolbox can further leverage Monsanto's
extensive gene library and lead to the development of more
biotechnology-based crop products with a greater number of
characteristics such as higher yield, and tolerance to insects,
weeds and other stresses," Padgette said.
Such tools will be critical in helping Monsanto meet its
sustainability goal of doubling yields in core crops by 2030, he
said.
"We will need to use the best technologies available to maximize
the potential of these crops," Padgette said.
Another goal of the collaboration is to identify genes that help
plants fight environmental stresses such as nitrogen deficiency.
The collaboration is expected to build upon Monsanto's research
philosophy of developing valuable families of technologies for
the challenges farmers routinely face on farm.
"We are excited to form an alliance with Monsanto," said Philip
Benfey, president and chief executive of GrassRoots. "Our
technologies and expertise combined with Monsanto's
commercialization pipeline will provide a means of rapidly
moving new genes and promoters into the field."
Monsanto Company is a leading global provider of
technology-based solutions and agricultural products that
improve farm productivity and food quality. Monsanto remains
focused on enabling both small-holder and large- scale farmers
to produce more from their land while conserving more of our
world's natural resources such as water and energy. To learn
more about our business and our commitments, please visit:
www.monsanto.com .
GrassRoots Biotechnology, Inc. is a start-up company based in
Research Triangle Park, NC. The company was founded to advance
and commercialize technologies developed by co-founder Dr.
Philip Benfey in his laboratory at Duke University. GrassRoots'
core technology, the RootArray system, makes it possible to
monitor gene expression within developing plant roots, thus
providing new insight into the mechanism of genetic control of
plant development. The RootArray facilitates the discovery of
genes and gene promoters that could produce higher-yielding
crops better able to withstand environmental stresses, like
drought and nitrogen deficiency.
GrassRoots also is developing an energy program to create
enhanced biofuel crops. Independently, GrassRoots is developing
a bioenergy research program. The company is creating enhanced
biofuel feedstocks with increased biomass, more accessible
cellulose to facilitate processing, and roots that sequester
greater amounts of carbon.
Other news
from GrassRoots Biotechnology Inc. |
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