Monsanto and Evogene Collaborate on Nitrogen Use Efficiency Research
25 Septiembre 2007 - 8:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
ST. LOUIS and REHOVOT, Israel, Sept. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
Monsanto Company (NYSE:MON) and Evogene Ltd. (TASE:EVGN) today
announced a collaboration to improve nitrogen use efficiency in
corn, soybeans, canola and cotton. Under the agreement, Monsanto
gains exclusive rights to a number of genes discovered by Evogene
that help plants maintain yield with lower applications of
nitrogen. Monsanto will work to evaluate the use of those genes in
its research and development pipeline. The potential candidates
from Evogene are complementary to the nitrogen utilization genes
already in testing in Monsanto's pipeline and could provide the
opportunity to further a series of upgrades for this key target
area. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Nitrogen fertilizer represents one of the largest input costs in
agriculture; it accounts for approximately one-fifth of the
operating costs for a corn producer. In the US alone, farmers spend
more than $3 billion annually on nitrogen fertilizer application of
corn fields, with plants typically absorbing less than half of the
nitrogen fertilizer applied. "Improving nitrogen use efficiency in
crops has immense value not only for farmers but also for our
environment," said Fred Below, professor of crop physiology at the
University of Illinois. "These improvements provide the greatest
opportunity for increased profitability, while also offering a new
way to reduce the environmental impact of corn production."
"Monsanto is continually innovating new technologies to help
farmers get more out of every seed and to do more with less,
including maximizing the nitrogen efficiency of crops," said Steve
Padgette, Monsanto's vice president of biotechnology. "We look
forward to working with Evogene to continue delivering valuable
products to farmers' fields that reduce agriculture's impact on the
environment." "Monsanto is acknowledged worldwide for its excellent
capabilities in delivering innovative technology to farmers," said
Mr. Ofer Haviv, Evogene's President and CEO. "Therefore we are
obviously delighted Monsanto has chosen our computational gene
discovery technology for the development of its next generation of
improved crop traits." About Monsanto Company Monsanto Company is a
leading global provider of technology-based solutions and
agricultural products that improve farm productivity and food
quality. For more information, please visit the company's web site
at http://www.monsanto.com/. About Evogene (TASE:EVGN) Evogene's
mission is to be a world leader in delivering improved plant traits
to the agro-biotechnology and Biofuel industries through the use of
a continuously improving proprietary platform that combines
state-of-the-art computational genomics, molecular biology and
advanced breeding methods. Evogene's current product development
portfolio includes such traits as: abiotic stress tolerance and
yield, improving nitrogen use efficiency, enhancement of cotton
fiber quality, increasing oil yield for the BioDiesel industry and
plant manufacturing of therapeutic proteins. Evogene was founded in
2002 as a spin-off of the agro-biotechnology division of Compugen
Ltd. (NASDAQ:CGEN). Evogene's core in-silico technology, the
ATHLETE, is based on Compugen's proprietary LEADS computational
platform. Evogene completed an IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
in June 2007. For additional information, please visit Evogene's
Website at http://www.evogene.com/ This press release contains
"forward-looking statements." These statements include words like
"may," "expects," "believes," "scheduled" and "intends," and they
describe opinions about future events. These forward-looking
statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that
may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of
Evogene Ltd. to be materially different from any future results,
performance or achievements expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements. DATASOURCE: Monsanto Company CONTACT:
Sara Duncan of Monsanto, +1-314-694-2729, ; or Assaf Oron of
Evogene, 972-8-9311900, Web site: http://www.monsanto.com/
http://www.evogene.com/ Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/114341.html
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