NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Cellectis plant sciences and Bayer CropScience are collaborating to develop commercial products for the agricultural seed markets, the Paris-based plant genome engineering and subsidiary of Cellectis said today.
The collaboration centers on the use of meganucleases in plants, and the products being developed will use new breeding techniques such as gene stacking and targeted mutagenesis. Cellectis and Bayer have collaborated since 2006 in plant genome engineering to evaluate the "value for commercial applications" of the meganuclease technology, and following the successful completion of that assessment, the firms decided to extend their partnership into a research and commercial agreement, Cellectis said.
The new agreement calls for Cellectis to provide Bayer with custom-designed meganucleases for plant genomes to introduce targeted modifications to selected genes and genomes.
Financial and other terms were not disclosed.