NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Precision BioSciences and Bayer CropScience have extended an existing plant bioengineering partnership to include development of new enzymes for use in crop development programs.
Under the new agreement, the companies will work together to develop Precision Bio’s Direct Nuclease Editor-engineered enzymes for use in Bayer CropScience’s crop development projects.
The original agreement, announced last year, gave Bayer non-exclusive access to Precision Bio’s DNE technology for use in modifying plant genomes to develop novel traits in plants and provided Bayer with multiple enzymes for its crop platforms.
The DNE technology is based on the production of custom DNA-cleaving enzymes that the company calls meganucleases, which enable crop researchers to delete, insert, or otherwise modify genes at user-defined endogenous sites within plant genomes.
Precision Bio said today that during the first phase of the partnership, the DNE technology enabled Bayer to target the insertion and removal of DNA at pre-determined locations in a plant genome.
The company said that by making it easier to introduce favorable traits into plant species, its DNE technology can help companies streamline development and reduce the time it takes to get a new product to the market.
Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.