EU Grants Patent To Cibus Global For Non-GM, Herbicide-Tolerant Plant Production

SAN DIEGO, California -— Crop trait development company Cibus Global — which in September 2009 signed a strategic development alliance with Israel-based Makhteshim-Agan, one of largest distributors of crop protection products in Europe — has been granted a new patent, EP 1 223 799 B1, from the European Patent Office, the company announced via press release. The patent is for Cibus’ unique Rapid Trait Development System (RTDS) in the production of a non-transgenic, or genetically modified (GM), plant that is resistant to or tolerant of herbicides of the phosphonomethylglycine family, particularly glyphosate.

With the EU ban on most GM crops, EU farmers have been unable to reap the benefits of herbicide resistant or tolerant crops, says Dr. Peter Beetham, Senior Vice President of Research for Cibus, and an inventor on the patent. “Cibus’ RTDS offers farmers the ability to better control weeds by introducing glyphosate tolerant crops made using the plant’s natural processes and without the introduction of foreign genetic material. This gives producers a new non-GM alternative that will enable them to maximize yields from key crops.” RTDS is a mutagenesis breeding methodology, which uses a plant’s natural process of gene repair to effect a precise change in the genetic sequence. The 2001 European Union Directive on GM crops exempts mutagenesis-derived crops from the Directive under Article 3, Annex 1B. A wide range of food crops currently cultivated in Europe were developed using mutagenesis techniques.

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Since glyphosate herbicide-tolerance reduces the need for tillage, diminishes soil erosion, and lessens the amount of herbicide applied to the soil for weed control, glyphosate herbicide-tolerant crop usage would provide significant production cost savings to European farmers, says Cibus. The projected annual aggregate trait value for non-GM herbicide tolerant crops in Europe for Cibus’ targeted crops is estimated at approximately US $1.9 billion.

RTDS technology can be used to improve yields in drought-afflicted or otherwise degraded lands, says Cibus, with no more risk than traditional plant breeding.
 

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