Yield10 Bioscience Announces Recent Advances in the Development of Camelina as a Production Platform for PHA Bioplastic
March 08 2022 - 8:30AM
Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. (Nasdaq:YTEN) (“Yield10” or the
“Company”), an agricultural bioscience company, today announced
recent advances in the development of Camelina as a platform for
the production of PHA bioplastic directly in the seed. Field work
completed during 2021 supports the Company’s decision to begin seed
scale up of prototype PHA spring Camelina lines at acre-scale in
2022. Yield10 is also developing PHA winter Camelina lines and
advancing its research program to increase the level and type of
PHA production achievable in its Camelina plant varieties.
“Camelina holds great promise as a platform crop for efficient,
scalable, low-cost production of PHA bioplastics,” said Kristi
Snell, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer of Yield10 Bioscience. “Through
our research and development efforts to date, Yield10 expects to
contribute significantly towards the global effort to produce
biodegradable materials targeted for consumer packaging and food
service items while also helping to reduce the amount of
petroleum-based plastic waste currently polluting the world’s land
and oceans. There is real momentum driving the Company’s innovative
pace of Camelina PHA trait development and its ultimate commercial
deployment for year-round harvest using both spring and winter
lines.”
Yield10 plans to breed an optimized PHA trait into the elite
herbicide and disease resistant varieties of Camelina currently
advancing in its pipeline with the expectation to process PHA
Camelina to achieve the integrated economics of simultaneously
producing three seed products: PHA bioplastic, feedstock oil and
protein animal feed. Seed based PHA bioplastic would represent
a major new market for farmers.
Summary of Yield10’s Development Program for Producing
PHA in Camelina
Utilizing a metabolic engineering approach, Yield10 deployed a
pathway for producing PHA bioplastic in the seed of Camelina.
Recent advancements include:
2021 Field Test
results: In 2021 Yield10 tested the two prototype PHA
(C3014 and C3015) producing spring Camelina lines at sites in the
U.S. and Canada. Results showed that C3015 lines produced PHA at
the 6 percent level as measured as a percent of seed weight,
consistent with results observed in field tests conducted in
2020.
2022 Seed Scale up
Plan: Permitting is underway to plant PHA (C3015)
Camelina line at acre-scale this year. This will enable production
of PHA for process development and product sampling.
Development of winter PHA
Camelina lines: Yield10 has recently developed winter
Camelina varieties containing the PHA (C3014 and C3015) trait. The
first field planting of these lines is planned for winter
2022/2023.
Ongoing Second-Generation
R&D Program: Yield10’s ongoing second-generation
research and development program is focused on improving the level
of PHA in the seed of Camelina to 10-20 percent. In addition, work
is underway to create PHA pathways that enable the production of
PHA co-polymers in Camelina. The successful production of PHA
co-polymers would expand the range of properties available for PHA
produced in Camelina resulting in broader target applications.
Background on PHA Bioplastics
Global plastic waste is estimated at 380 million metric tons per
year. The largest market for plastics today is for packaging
materials, and it accounts for nearly half of all plastic waste
generated globally, where most of it is never recycled or
incinerated. We believe there may be significant market opportunity
for producing PHA biomaterials in Camelina in the future. PHA
biomaterials (PHAs) are natural microbial high molecular weight
polymeric storage polymers. These polymers are natural polyesters
and can be recovered from the microbes which produce them and
processed using standard plastics processing equipment into a range
of product forms. The production of PHA bioplastics in Camelina
could represent an entirely new market opportunity for farmers.
This opportunity could provide economic returns for farmers to
justify large acreage adoption of Camelina as a cover crop and
enable the low-cost production of this product for new markets
including water treatment and sustainable biodegradable plastics
replacement applications.
About Yield10 Bioscience
Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. is an agricultural bioscience company
that is using its differentiated trait gene discovery platform, the
“Trait Factory”, to develop improved Camelina varieties for the
production of proprietary seed products, and to discover high value
genetic traits for the agriculture and food industries. Our goals
are to efficiently establish a high value seed products business
based on developing superior varieties of Camelina to produce
feedstock oils, PHA bioplastics, and omega-3 (DHA+EPA) oils, and to
license our yield traits to major seed companies for
commercialization in major row crops, including corn, soybean and
canola. Yield10 is headquartered in Woburn, MA and has an Oilseeds
Center of Excellence in Saskatoon, Canada.
For more information about the company, please visit
www.yield10bio.com, or follow the Company on Twitter, Facebook and
LinkedIn.
(YTEN-G)
Safe Harbor for
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are
made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the
Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The forward-looking
statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future
performance. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press
release which are not strictly historical, including, without
limitation, statements regarding Camelina’s promise as a platform
crop for efficient, scalable, low-cost production of PHA
bioplastics; the Company’s expectation that it will contribute
significantly towards the global effort to produce biodegradable
materials; the Company’s momentum driving the Company’s innovative
pace of Camelina PHA trait development and its ultimate commercial
deployment for year-round harvest; the Company’s plans to breed the
PHA trait into elite herbicide and disease resistant varieties of
Camelina; the Company’s expectation for PHA Camelina to achieve the
integrated economics of simultaneously producing three seed
products; the Company’s intentions with regard to the 2022 seed
scale up plan, enabling production of PHA for sampling, and the
winter 2022/2023 planting schedule; the Company’s expectations with
respect to improving the level of PHA to 10-20 percent, enabling
the production of PHA co-polymers in Camelina and the potential
range of properties available for PHA produced in Camelina; and the
Company’s belief about the market opportunity for producing PHA
biomaterials in Camelina, the production of PHA bioplastics as a
market opportunity for farmers, and the potential economic returns
for farmers to justify large acreage adoption of Camelina as a
cover crop constitute forward-looking statements. Such
forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those anticipated, including the risks and uncertainties
detailed in Yield10 Bioscience's filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. Yield10 assumes no obligation to update any
forward-looking information contained in this press release or with
respect to the matters described herein.
Contacts: Yield10 Bioscience:Lynne H. Brum,
(617) 682-4693, LBrum@yield10bio.com
Investor Relations: Bret Shapiro, (561) 479-8566,
brets@coreir.comManaging Director, CORE IR
Media Inquiries: Eric Fischgrund, eric@fischtankpr.com FischTank
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