The collaboration will help introduce higher-yielding agricultural products to the market more quickly.

DuPont and US genomics company Precision BioSciences (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina) have agreed to a collaboration that will help introduce higher-yielding agricultural products to the market more quickly.

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DuPont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred International will gain rights to Precision’s Directed Nuclease Editor (DNE) technology, which enables the introduction and stacking of multiple genes which will help accelerate product development in maize, soybeans and other agricultural crops.

The technology enables rapid production of redesigned homing endonucleases capable of producing double-strand breaks at predetermined DNA sites, and can be used to safely target site-specific DNA breaks for genome modifications. Scientists can insert, remove and stack multiple traits at pre-selected sites in the plant genome, thus shortening the time to release new products.

William S Niebur, vice-president of DuPont crop genetics research and development, believes the union will yield positive results. “To meet growing demand for food, feed and fuel around the world, we must increase agricultural productivity,” he notes.

“DNE technology gives us an important tool to efficiently develop and rapidly deploy improved traits such as drought resistance… and increased yield into the Pioneer line-up.”

Precision BioSciences CEO Matthew Kane mirrored Niebur’s optimism. “We believe it will greatly enhance the ability to introduce, remove or regulate genes of choice,” he says.

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