The trials produce successful results in transgenic tomato plants Photo: Stephanie Berghaeuse

The completion of third- year field trials for Evogene’s (Rehovat, Israel) candidate gene, Evo133, designed to improve yield and abiotic stress tolerance, have produced successful results in transgenic tomato plants, the company says.

The trials demonstrated a yield increase of up to 25% under normal conditions and up to 20% under abiotic stress conditions, compared to control plants in the same environments, mirroring the success of two previous field trials in 2005 and 2006.

The value of Evo133, one of a group of genes discovered by Evogene in 2003, was predicted in silico using Evogene’s unique computational gene discovery platform, ATHLETE (Agro Traits Harvest LEads TEchnology), which creates comparative genomics through the assembly of genomic data to identify genes linked to specific traits. The gene was then experimentally validated in model plants before being further verified through field trials.

Dr Hagai Karchi, Evogene’s vice-president of development and chief technology officer, emphasised the usefulness of the technology for future research. "An important feature of ATHLETE is that it is a constantly improving platform,” he explains. “Evogene has already used ATHLETE to complete a second round of gene discovery for improving plant abiotic stress tolerance, with the resulting discovery of a number of additional candidate genes for this important trait.”

Plants that display an improved tolerance to abiotic stress could help agriculture cope with increasing climate change, holding huge economic potential for the industry.

Evogene has collaborated with a number of agbiotech companies to explore the potential of Evo133 in field crops, including Bayer CropScience for rice, Biogemma for maize, Mertec for soybean and French research institute CIRAD (Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développment) for cotton.  Initial results from Evogene’s sole development of canola are expected in 2008, alongside results from collaborations on maize. Further collaborative results for soybeans and cotton are predicted for 2009.

Ofer Haviv, Evogene’s president and CEO, highlighted the potential of future research. “We intend to continue focusing our gene discovery and validation efforts mainly on increasing yield, improving drought tolerance and nitrogen use efficiency," he confirmed.
By Rebecca Debens

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