Syngenta will use GenomeQuest's sequence data-management platform to analyze plant, insect, and microbial genomes and transcriptomes generated on next-generation sequencing platforms, GenomeQuest said this week.
In addition, GenomeQuest said that Syngenta's NGS sequences and annotations will be processed and stored in its data center, a hardware and software architecture developed by GenomeQuest and SGI to support the company's software-as-a-service delivery model.
GenomeQuest said that Syngenta relies on a "mixed-model" NGS platform that combines internal hardware "with external capacity provided by collaboration with several global organizations."
Syngenta plans to use GenomeQuest's application programming interface to customize the platform, host existing research applications, create new applications, and connect to enterprise and partner systems.
Syngenta will use GenomeQuest's platform to identify genes and variants that improve plant yields and increase plant protection. Syngenta has collected sequence data from thousands of individual samples including 25 plant species and numerous insects and microbes.
This announcement comes a week after GenomeQuest announced that it had formed a two-year partnership with Harvard University's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to develop whole-genome analysis applications for personalized healthcare. (BI 10/22/2010)
In a recent interview with BioInform, Ron Resnick, GenomeQuest's acting CEO, said that the agricultural biotech sector is a promising short-term market that would be a "major source of revenue" for the firm (BI 09/17/2010).