Wageningen, The Netherlands
March 13, 2013

KeyGene announces today that it has further expanded its patent estate related to KeyPoint® Mutation Breeding (MB). Both the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of the People’s Republic of China and the Australian Patent Office (IP Australia) granted KeyGene’s patent entitled “High Throughput Screening of Mutagenized Populations”, which protects methods for detecting induced and natural genetic variation in large plant populations. These methods form the cornerstone of KeyPoint MB programs, which deliver novel genetic variation in selected genes for trait improvement in crops at industrial scale. Using this innovative approach large numbers of improved genes involved in traits such as biotic stress resistance and drought tolerance have been obtained for a number of crops e.g. corn, soybean, canola and wheat. Results so far included corn plants with improved drought tolerance, short-stem canola and soybean with altered fungal resistance. Development of these valuable and proprietary pre-breeding materials was completed within timeframes of less than six months. Significant cost savings can be made because KeyPoint MB products do not require deregulation.

Michiel van Eijk, CSO of KeyGene comments: “We welcome these additions to our Molecular Mutagenesis patent estate. KeyPoint MB has proven to be an extremely powerful way to generate pre-breeding material for a variety of crops. The granted patents are an incentive for further roll-out of KeyPoint MB in important agricultural countries via licenses and/or collaborations. Together with the seed industry and academic partners we will use KeyPoint MB to systematically develop improved genes in all major crops”.

KeyGene is a privately owned, innovative molecular genetics Ag Biotech company with a primary focus on the improvement of 6F (Food, Feed, Fiber, Fuel, Flowers and Fun) crops. KeyGene’s passion is a Green Gene Revolution approach to explore and exploit natural genetic variation in vegetable and other 6F crops. KeyGene delivers sustainable responses to the world’s needs for yield stability & quality of vegetable and field crops. It supports its strategic partners with cutting edge breeding technologies and plant-based trait platforms to meet their needs. KeyGene performs strategic and applied research with more than 135 employees from all over the world, with state of the art facilities and equipment. KeyGene has its headquarters in Wageningen, the Netherlands, a subsidiary in Rockville, USA and a Joint Lab with the Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences in Shanghai, China.

Website: http://www.keygene.com

Published: March 13, 2013