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Monsanto partners with GrassRoots Biotechnology
Posted: Thursday, January 29, 2009 2:42 pm
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Monsanto has announced the establishment of a three-year collaboration with GrassRoots Biotechnology Inc., based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, to source novel genetic elements, including promoters and genes, which can enable crops to express traits that enhance and protect yield. Monsanto will use the promoters sourced from GrassRoots in a broad range of crops, including corn, soy, cotton and canola, to optimize an array of biotechnology traits.

Promoters are segments of DNA that determine when and where a trait is expressed within a plant. GrassRoots uses a variety of methods, including computational approaches, to identify promoter candidates. Once specific promoter sequences are identified, the information can be further used to design novel promoters for the expression of desirable traits in plants.

"The availability of high-quality promoters with specific expression patterns for use in commercial products is limited, so there is value in developing novel promoters to drive new traits," said Steve Padgette, vice president of biotechnology for Monsanto.

"We are excited to form an alliance with Monsanto," said Philip Benfey, president and chief executive of GrassRoots. "Our technologies and expertise combined with Monsanto's commercialization pipeline will provide a means of rapidly moving new genes and promoters into the field."

GrassRoots Biotechnology, Inc. was founded to advance and commercialize technologies developed by co-founder Dr. Philip Benfey in his laboratory at Duke University. GrassRoots' core technology, the RootArray system, makes it possible to monitor gene expression within developing plant roots, thus providing new insight into the mechanism of genetic control of plant development.
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