Algentech announces it has solved a major technological bottleneck in applied plant genomics, by transforming the cotton mitochondrial genome with DNA sequences naturally capable of inducing cytoplasmic male sterility.
This breakthrough in molecular genetics can be applied in the fast generation of high yielding hybrid varieties without the requirement of repetitive and time-consuming back-crosses, simply by transferring the desired CMS trait directly into the mitochondria.
Alexander Sorokin, CEO of ALGENTECH stated: “This achievement shows the potential of our cutting-edge technologies and their application to crop improvement. We are currently exploring novel ways to use mitochondria as an expression platform and trait stacking tool”.
For Isabelle Malcuit, CSO of ALGENTECH stated: “We offer the opportunity to seed producers to accelerate the development of hybrids and test different models of CMS. This achievement reinforces our strategy based on a proprietary patent portfolio for organelle transformation and genome editing”.
