U.S.-based DuPont and the Institute of Plant Protection of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences have entered into a multi-year, exclusive research collaboration to improve in-plant insect control to help increase worldwide crop yields.
Under the agreement,the DuPont business Pioneer Hi-Bred will collaborate with the Institute of Plant Protection to identify novel genes to develop and commercialize in next-generation seed products. Terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
According to William S. Niebur, DuPont's vice president for crop genetics research and development, global agriculture must produce sufficient quantities of food, feed, fiber and fuel for an expanding world population. He described the collaboration as an innovative partnership between established leaders in plant biotechnology that will create novel genetic-based solutions to drive increased productivity by farmers in China and around the world and so help meet increasing consumer demand.
The Institute of Plant Protection and Pioneer will apply their collective expertise in microbial screening, molecular biology and genomics to discover gene leads that protect crops from yield losses due to destructive insect pests. Pioneer researchers will use gene shuffling, molecular breeding and other proprietary trait enhancement tools to further develop these gene leads. An accelerated trait integration process will be utilized to incorporate traits into high yielding products rapidly to enhance product introduction timelines and increase global agricultural productivity.
"The continual discovery and development of new traits for insect and pest control is important not only for providing growers with enhanced options but also for solving the challenges of insect resistance. We are pleased to be collaborating with a global leader like Pioneer to bring our institute’s novel insect control options to the world market," said Professor Kongming Wu, the director general of the Institute of Plant Protection of CAAS.
