Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. (Nasdaq:YTEN), an agricultural bioscience
company which uses its “Trait Factory” to develop high value seed
traits for the agriculture and food industries, today announced
that it has signed an exclusive worldwide license from the
University of Missouri (MU) for a novel, advanced technology to
boost oil content in crops. The license expands Yield10’s
intellectual property portfolio around technologies for increasing
oil content in oilseed crops. This new gene target, designated
C3012 by Yield10, is consistent with the Company’s focus on using
CRISPR-Cas/9 genome-editing to increase seed oil content, the
primary economic value driver in these crops.
Professor of Biochemistry Jay Thelen, Ph.D., and his team at the
MU Bond Life Sciences Center, have made fundamental biochemistry
discoveries related to the function and regulation of Acetyl-CoA
carboxylase (“ACCase”), a key rate-limiting enzyme involved in oil
production in crops. In 2018, Yield10 licensed technology
from MU related to a trait named C3007, a gene for a negative
controller that inhibits the enzyme activity of ACCase. The new
technology licensed by Yield10, C3012, targets an additional gene
in the ACCase complex that may complement the activity of C3007 to
boost oil content in crops. Yield10 also licensed from MU in 2018 a
yield target called C3010, which, if over-expressed, results in
increased activity of ACCase and may lead to increased oil
content.
“This additional license with University of Missouri underscores
our focus on gene targets in the ACCase complex to re-engineer oil
biosynthesis pathways in crops,” said Oliver Peoples, Ph.D.,
President and Chief Executive Officer of Yield10 Bioscience. “We
look forward to evaluating the new technology accessed under the
license which we have designated C3012 both on its own as well as
in combination with C3007, where we believe its activity may be
synergistic. The detailed biochemistry studies performed by Dr.
Thelen and his team have not only improved our understanding of the
regulation of these critical metabolic pathways but have led to
these impressive discoveries and patent applications around the
ACCase complex, and we look forward to continuing our work
together.”
“The ACCase protein complex is the gatekeeper for carbon flow
into fatty acid biosynthesis,” said Dr. Thelen. “In terms of
regulation, this complex is poorly understood in plants. My lab is
focused on identifying new components to this complex and
leveraging these discoveries to push carbon flow through this
bottleneck. The end goal is to engineer plants to produce more
oil.”
“The discoveries made by Dr. Thelen and his team around the
biochemistry of a key enzyme in a key fatty acid biosynthesis
pathway in plants represents an innovative and significant
advancement in boosting oil content and yield in crops,” said Sam
Bish, Interim Director and Senior Licensing and Business
Development Associate, MU Technology Advancement Office.
“This additional license to Yield10 Bioscience further
enables the company to assemble and deploy advanced technologies to
increase the amount of oil harvested from plants, an important
renewable source of hydrocarbons for food, energy and chemical
feedstocks. The availability of healthy, edible oils is a crucial
element in enhancing global food security.”
Dr. Thelen is a member of Yield10 Bioscience’s Science Advisory
Board.
Background on C3007
The protein encoded by C3007, also known as BADC, is a novel,
negative regulator of an essential enzyme (ACCase) in fatty acid
biosynthesis. Its normal function slows down oil biosynthesis,
where reducing BADC has the effect of allowing more oil
biosynthesis to occur. The advanced oilseed technology
comprising C3007 was developed by Dr. Thelen, and his team, a group
of researchers with a combined 35 years of experience in the field.
Their research enabled the engineering of a new biochemical
mechanism to increase seed oil content in a model plant system.
In 2018, Yield10 produced a CRISPR-cas9 genome-edited version
of C3007 in canola and further development and evaluation of the
trait is underway. Yield10’s ongoing research to modify C3007,
C3010, C3012 in oilseed crops using genome-editing may enable the
Company to develop these promising traits on an expedited timeline
for the U.S. market based on securing a “non-regulated” designation
from USDA-APHIS, although they may be subject to regulation by EPA
or FDA.
About the Technology Advancement Office and the Bond
Life Sciences Center, University of Missouri
The Technology Advancement Office (TAO) manages technology
transfer functions at the University of Missouri in Columbia,
Missouri. TAO professionals identify, assess, license and
protect innovations resulting from MU’s world-class
research. They also create and facilitate pathways for the
transfer of innovations to the marketplace, where research truly
benefits society. Founded in 1839, MU is Missouri’s largest public
research university. The MU Bond Life Sciences Center houses
researchers from six schools and colleges who conduct
interdisciplinary research to solve problems in human and animal
health, the environment and agriculture. The university’s
Department of Biochemistry is part of both the College of
Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and the School of
Medicine.
About Yield10
Bioscience
Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. is an agricultural bioscience company
which uses its “Trait Factory” to develop high value seed traits
for the agriculture and food industries to achieve step-change
improvements in crop yield to enhance global food security.
Yield10 has an extensive track record of innovation based
around optimizing the flow of carbon in living systems. The
“Trait Factory” has two components: the “GRAIN” computational
modeling platform, which is used to identify specific gene changes
designed to improve crop performance, and the deployment of those
changes into crops using genome-editing or traditional agricultural
biotechnology approaches. The purpose of the “Trait Factory”
is to engineer precise alterations to gene activity and the flow of
carbon in plants to produce higher yields with lower inputs of
land, water or fertilizer. Yield10 is advancing several yield
traits it has developed in crops such as canola, soybean, rice,
wheat and corn. 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.
(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, expectations regarding
development of the new MU oil content technology designated C3012,
C3007 and C3010 as traits to boost oil content in crops, the
potential to secure “non-regulated” designations for traits
submitted to USDA-APHIS, and the progress of Yield10 Bioscience,
Inc., 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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