Abiotic stress conditions such as drought, salty water, soil salinity and cold stress have a huge impact on crop productivity and agricultural supply, especially due global warming, erratic climate changes and loss of agriculture farming land. The interest in developing plants displaying improved tolerance to abiotic stress is driven not only by the enormous economic potential, but also by the humanitarian impact it may have on agricultural supply in third world countries.
Evogene has discovered key genes for improving plant yield and tolerance to abiotic stress, currently being introduced into field crops. These genes were extensively studied in transgenic tomatoes, where they have shown yield increase of up to 20% compared to control non transgenic tomatoes when subject to harsh drought conditions. Improved yield has also been demonstrated under normal growth conditions.
Evogene's proprietary genes are currently being incorporated into commercial crops through collaboration with Bayer cropScience in rice, Mertec LLC in soybean , Biogemma in corn , Viterra in canola and CIRAD in cotton.
A second round of gene discovery was initiated in 2006, aiming at discovering key genes that would improve plant abiotic stress tolerance based on a comprehensive database of more than 30 plant species. Results from gene validation in model plants are currently underway. Candidate genes out of Evogene's second round of genes discovery were licensed to Pioneer for introduction into corn and soybean.
Evogene is currently conducting a model plant validation of abiotic stress tolerance genes discovered in a third round of gene discovery during 2007.
Genetically modified Tomato plant over expressing an ABST & Yield candidate gene (right) displaying higher yield and better performance compared to a non transgenic control plant (left). The plants were grown under identical conditions and were irrigated with water containing a high concentration of salt
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More Trait Development (Genetic Modification) projects:
Resistant Banana to Black Leaf Streak Disease
Incresed Yield Monocots
Increased Yield Dicot
Improved Nitrogen Use Efficiency
Background
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