Key research milestone reached in the collaboration between Dow and Sangamo

Dow AgroSciences and US genomics company Sangamo BioSciences (Richmond, California) have completed a key research milestone in their collaboration into plant agriculture.

The joint Research and Commercial License Agreement employs Sangamo’s zinc finger DNA-binding protein nuclease (ZFN) technology in precision genome editing of a native plant gene. The technology is being harnessed with the aim of improving canola, a crop central to Dow’s business, through a broad array of input, output and agronomic traits, and marks the first demonstration of the precise modification of the DNA sequence of an existing gene in canola designed to generate an improved trait.

The announcement also highlights the ability of ZFNs to act at their intended target in commercially valuable crops.

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“Sangamo’s technology is revolutionising scientists’ ability to modify genes in cells,” Edward Lanphier, Sangamo’s president and CEO, notes. “The power of the ZFP platform is being harnessed… by Dow AgroSciences in plant agriculture to positively effect changes in plant genomes at a speed, efficiency, and specificity which heretofore was only considered a dream.”

The three-year agreement, initiated in October 2005, permits Dow AgroSciences access to Sangamo’s ZFP technology for the development of products in plants and plant cell cultures. Dow also retains the option to obtain a commercial licence to sell products making use of plant cells generated using the technology, including agricultural crops.

Jerome Peribere, president and CEO of Dow AgroSciences, highlighted the success of the collaboration. “We have demonstrated the robust utility and flexibility of the Sangamo technology in precision editing of a native plant gene, confirming the power of zinc finger proteins to accomplish specific and targeted modifications of the plant’s own genetic sequence,” he says. “The technology shows potential to enable the delivery of ‘designer’ crops into new and existing markets.”

Sangamo has also developed sequence-specific ZFNs for precision gene modification and targeted gene insertion, which holds the potential to introduce new discoveries in genomics to the market.

By Rebecca Debens

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