Canola and soybean are important oil crops, used for both the food and biofuel industries. Canola oil is the healthiest of all commonly used cooking oils, it is lowest in saturated fat, high in cholesterol-lowering mono-unsaturated fat, and the best source of omega 3 fats of all common oils. Canola's oil fatty acid composition is highly suitable for biodiesel production, and since it is of the widest availability in Europe, it was a natural first choice for biodiesel production. In Germany alone the area of canola planted has doubled in the last 5 years due to demand for biodiesel, with use of biodiesel reaching over 5% of diesel fuel. In the US, soybean is the main source for oil, hence it is dominantly used through the US biodiesel industry.
Evogene's yield (oil yield) project is aimed at developing oil crops, such as canola and soybean, displaying increased oil yield, and hence creating significant economic value for the food and biodiesel industries. At EU biodiesel targets for 2010 of 19 billion liters, a 10% increase in oil yield would represent an economic value of $900M.
Today, with the vast amount of genomic sequence data from various crops, characterized natural biodiversity populations and our powerful ATHLETE platform we are able to conduct a comprehensive cross species comparison (covering more than 20 plant species). Our aim is to identify the "trait related" genes, which were subject to natural selection and to accelerate these processes through genetic modification.
Evogene has discovered a set of proprietary candidate genes that have high potential to increase economic oil yield and are currently undergoing validation in model plant systems.
Biodiesel Background
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More Trait Development (Genetic Modification) projects:
Resistant Banana to Black Leaf Streak Disease
Incresed Yield Monocots
Improved Nitrogen Use Efficiency
Improved Abiotic Stress Tolerance
Background
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