Bayer CropScience, Mendel Biotechnology Extend Collaboration
8 March 2010 MONHEIM, Germany — Bayer CropScience and Hayward, California, US-based Mendel Biotechnology, Inc. have agreed to a new three-year collaboration to extend their existing joint activities, according to a press release. Currently, the two companies are working together to develop agrochemical products that make crops more resistant to biotic and abiotic stress factors, stabilizing yields and improve crop productivity.
“Chemical products that mediate enhanced crop performance are an untapped market with potentially high added value,” said Dr. Alexander Klausener, Head of Research at Bayer CropScience, in the press release. “New solutions would enable Bayer CropScience to make a significant contribution to safeguarding agricultural yields and increasing productivity in the longer term. Although abiotic stress factors cause substantial loss of yields in agriculture, the development of products to strengthen plants and increase yields is a largely uncharted field of research.”
Bayer CropScience is already marketing products which enhance the stress tolerance of plants and boost yields under the “Stress Shield Inside” label, while Mendel has a large number of biotechnology patents. Mendel researchers have identified key genes responsible for controlling plant growth and environmental responses and are applying these discoveries to improve plant performance. The purpose of the collaboration is to develop substances that chemically modulate the signaling networks used by plants to control parameters such as growth and stress tolerance. Mendel and Bayer have been working together for several years in the discovery and development of chemical products to regulate plant stress tolerance with the three-year extension, the goal is to discover substances that regulate additional components of crop yield potential.
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