NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Bayer CropScience said today it has inked two agreements with Cellectis plant sciences that extend a partnership focused on modifying and editing plant genes and genomes to improve crops.
Under the agreements, the partners will use tools Cellectis developed to create commercial traits for the canola seed market, and Bayer will have access to Cellectis' technologies for gene stacking and targeted mutagenesis that enable it to engineer plant genomes.
The companies said a year ago that they had partnered to develop meganuclease-based products that can introduce target modifications to selected genes and genomes, and they have been working together to evaluate the potential for these tools since 2006.
Catherine Feuillet, head of trait research at Bayer CropScience, said in a statement that these technologies "facilitate the creation of specific modifications in the plant genome or genes thus minimize the genetic footprint left behind."
Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.