A multinational agricultural company based in Idaho has acquired gene editing licensing rights that could one day be used to help farmers produce more crops and make …. strawberries, potatoes and avocados stay fresher longer.
J.R. Simplot Company on [August 6th] announced the agreement with DowDuPont Inc. and the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, developers of the nascent gene editing technology. Simplot is the first agricultural company to receive such a license.
…
“The issues are about getting the right kind of food produced in the right kind of way,” said Neal Gutterson, chief technology officer at Corteva Agriscience, DowDuPont’s agriculture division. “It’s important to be able to produce enough food for the nine to 10 billion people who will be on the planet in 30 years.”
…
[I]f an organism’s genome is made analogous to a large manuscript, CRISPR-Cas9 allows scientists to edit specific words in the manuscript using a “search and replace” function. One of the remaining challenges, scientists say, is getting the complete genome for particular food crops ….…
The company has already used other genetic techniques to …. produce commercially sold potatoes that resist bruising and late blight, which …. continues to cause problems for potato farmers. Gene editing is expected to further the company’s expertise in potatoes.
Read full, original article: Idaho Agribusiness Lands Gene Editing Licensing Rights
