Successful Third Year Field Trial of Evogene's Candidate Gene for Improving Yield and Abiotic Stress Tolerance

Three years of field trials of Evo133 consistently demonstrate yield increases of up to 25% under normal conditions and up to 20% under abiotic stress conditions

21-Dec-2007

Evogene Ltd. announced successful third year field trial results for Evo133, one of its candidate genes for improving plant yield and tolerance to abiotic stress conditions. Transgenic tomato plants over expressing Evo133 demonstrated an increase of up to 25% under normal conditions, and up to 20% under abiotic stress conditions compared to control plants under the same conditions. Results from this third field trial are consistent with two previous field trials conducted in 2005 and 2006.

Evo133 is one of a group of genes discovered by Evogene in 2003, which were predicted to provide improved plant yield and tolerance to abiotic stress conditions, such as drought, salt and heat stress. These genes were predicted in silico using Evogene's unique computational gene discovery platform, the ATHLETE, and then experimentally validated in model plants. Evo133 was further validated in field trials in transgenic tomato plants, and has now successfully completed its third year of such trials.

Evogene has entered into collaborations with leading ag-bio companies for the evaluation of Evo133 in major field crops. To date, these collaborations include Bayer CropScience for rice, Biogemma SAS for corn, Mertec LLC for soybean and CIRAD (Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement), a French Research Institute, for cotton. In addition, Evogene is itself further developing Evo133 in canola using recently established "in house" transformation capabilities. Initial results from these efforts by Evogene and its collaborators are expected during 2008 in corn and canola, and 2009 in soybean and cotton.

Abiotic stress conditions, such as drought, salty water, soil salinity and heat stress currently have a massive impact on crop productivity and agricultural supply, and this impact is continuing to increase due to global warming and climate changes. Therefore, developing plants displaying improved tolerance to abiotic stress would have an enormous economic potential, and is one of the main goals for leading seed companies.

https://www.bionity.com/en/news/76028/successful-third-year-field-trial-of-evogene-s-candidate-gene-for-improving-yield-and-abiotic-stress-tolerance.html