Pipeline Features Stacks,

Partnerships, Innovation

8-stack corn, drought resistance, tolerance to more herbicides highlight developments

The trend toward stacking of biotech traits to package herbicide tolerance and insect protection is continuing in the product pipelines of leading biotechnology providers. In addition to combining traits, the big technology companies are combining their talents as well, stacking the traits of one company with the traits of another. In addition to new packages, some entirely new traits are on the horizon as well.

The newest areas of research are in drought tolerance and nitrogen utilization and in yield improvement. All agronomic traits, of course, are intended to improve yields by reducing stress and offering better control of weeds and other pests. Now the pipeline is offering products aimed solely at increasing yield without considering pests as a factor. BASF has joined forces with Monsanto to identify genes capable of increasing the yield potential of a plant’s germplasm. These broad acreage biotech products are intended to more rapidly advance the yield gains obtained through conventional breeding of elite hybrids and varieties. The companies’ research targets corn, soybean, canola and cotton. The first products are not expected until the middle of the next decade. Pioneer’s Accelerated Yield Technology uses proprietary molecular breeding techniques to rapidly scan and identify genes that increase yield and then incorporates them into elite soybean genetics.  While this technology is first being used in soybeans, it will also be applied in corn and other crops as well.

Across the industry, pipeline offerings fall into three main categories: Yield and stress traits, agronomic input traits and value-added output traits. Of interest to growers in the Northern Plains, most of these traits are being developed for corn and soybeans, but some research is also underway in canola. A few companies are looking at wheat, but no wheat trait is close to introduction in the United States.

“Platform” will be the newest word to enter the corporate jargon as companies build other traits on top of their popular herbicide-tolerance trait.  For example, Roundup Ready2Yield, a higher-yielding version of Roundup Ready soybeans expected to launch in 2009, will be Monsanto’s platform on which to add other soybean traits.  Pioneer will build atop its Optimum GAT technology, expected by 2009 in soybean and 2010 in corn. It combines improved yield with tolerance to glyphosate and ALS herbicides. These platforms will be the basis for stacking one or more other traits in the pipeline or already commercialized, such as insect protection, improved feed content or improved nutritonal content. 

In addition to stacking their own traits, companies are forming partnerships to combine competitors’ traits. For example, Syngenta has obtained rights to Optimum GAT for use with Syngenta traits. The two companies also have created a joint venture company, GreenLeaf Genetics, to market genetics from each company to other seed companies. Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences are working together to develop SmartStax corn, which will combine eight different genes for herbicide tolerance and insect protection and become the two companies’ platform in corn.

In addition to new packages of popular traits, several new innovations are on the horizon in corn, soybean and canola.

CORN
Yield and stress traits -- Drought tolerance and nitrogen utilization are high on the priority lists of several companies, including Dow AgroSciences, Monsanto, Pioneer Hi-Bred and Syngenta, which are competing to introduce the first traits.  Increased demand for water and concerns about global climate change are driving the push to develop corn and other crops that can better withstand extended periods of little or no rainfall. The desire for increased yields and the need to minimize nitrogen loss into streams are fueling research into improved use of nitrogen fertilzer.

Field trials with drought tolerance traits throughout the Corn Belt are demonstrating that target goals of 8 to 10 percent yield improvements over conventional hybrids are realistic. Development of these traits is progressing into the late stages, and the first products are forecast to be commercial by 2011. Traits for higher yield and improved nitrogen utilization are further back in the pipeline, but showing promise. Early field trials with nitrogen utilization traits in multiple hybrids are showing yield improvements ranging from 4 to 9 percent.

Agronomic traits -- Improvements in herbicide tolerance and insect protection dominate the development of new input traits. The eight-gene SmartStax from the Monsanto/Dow AgroSciences collaboration will combine resistance to Roundup and Liberty herbicides. It also will provide three genes for rootworm control and three genes for corn borer control from Dow AgroSciences’ Herculex brand and Monsanto’s YieldGard line. Registration is expected by the end of the decade.

In addition to this multi-stacked product, other stacked traits are in development. Through stacking of their own traits or collaborations and licensing agreements, nearly every technology provider will have corn products for herbicide tolerance and above- and below-ground insect protection. In addition, several companies are working on second or third generation insect control products, expanding the spectrum of target pests controlled by existing products.

New types of herbicide tolerance also are in the mix. Optimum GAT corn, tolerant to glyphosate and ALS herbicides, is expected in 2010. And Dow AgroSciences is developing a trait (DHT) that is resistant to phenoxy broadleaf herbicides (2,4-D) and fluazifop grass herbicides (Fusilade). Stacking that trait, expected in corn in 2012, with glyphosate or glufosinate tolerance (Roundup Ready or Liberty Link) will provide better control of a full spectrum of weeds in corn and reduce the threat of weed resistance.

Value-added output traits -- Ethanol production and livestock feed are the focus of output traits in corn. Corn already has been developed with more fermentable content, making it better suited for ethanol production.  And corn with improved feed content, such as high lysine, also has been developed. In addition, Renessen, a joint venture of Monsanto and Cargill, is developing a new process to more efficiently separate the fermentable portions from the non-fermentable, creating a higher value ethanol co-product for livestock feed. Further development of high-value feed and ethanol traits is expected to create new opportunities for growers to focus on the nutritional value of inputs instead of commodity grades and deliver enhanced value to end users. Pioneer is also developing products to improve ethanol content in grain from corn hybrids, as well as to improve feed efficiency of corn. Among these solutions are transgenic trait applications expected on the market in the next decade. 

SOYBEAN

Yield and stress traits -- Higher yielding soybean, along with higher yielding corn and canola, has entered the second phase of development, according to Monsanto and BASF.

Agronomic traits -- A new generation of herbicide tolerant crops also promises to increase yields. Monsanto’s Roundup Ready2 Yield soybeans are expected to be commercial on a limited basis in 2009. Four years of field data have shown an average yield increase of 9 percent over current Roundup Ready varieties. Pioneer’s Optimum GAT trait for tolerance to glyphosate and ALS herbicides will be combined in soybeans with the company’s Accelerated Yield Technology. Projected yield increases from that combination have not been determined.

Dow AgroSciences expects to introduce its DHT technology (2,4-D/Fusilade tolerance) in soybeans by 2013.

Soybeans resistant to dicamba herbicide have entered the third stage of development at Monsanto.

Further back in the company’s biotech pipeline are nematode resistant soybeans and soybeans that resist soybean rust.  Syngenta also is developing non-biotech varieties with aphid resistance and nematode resistance. Aphid resistance has entered the elite breeding stage, and nematode resistance is in the late development stage. Pioneer is also developing aphid-resistant traits, using possible transgenic solutions. 

Value-added output traits -- Several companies are continuing to develop soybeans with improved oil content. Pioneer and Syngenta are developing low linolenic soybeans that reduce trans fatty acids.  Monsanto, whose Vistive low-lin soybean already has been commercialized is developing a Vistive III soybean that also has lower saturated fats and higher unsaturated oleic content. These improvements will give soybean oil a health profile similar to olive oil, considered by many to be the most healthful oil. Pioneer will be offering high oleic soybeans, which will be one of the first products on the marketplace developed with a transgenic trait that has a consumer benefit. This trait, expected for marketing in 2009,  offers healthier oil and use in industrial applications. Soybeans high in Omega-3 fatty acids, linked to improved heart health, also are in development.

CANOLA

A few biotech traits are being developed for canola:

• The Monsanto/BASF higher-yielding canola has moved into the second phase of product development.
• Bayer, under an agreement with Senesco,  also is seeking to improve crop yields by enhancing specific canola genes.

WHEAT

Syngenta reportedly is developing a fusarium resistance gene, and BASF is reportedly doing work with drought tolerance in wheat, but the companies did not respond to a request for information about those projects.