Global crop protection and seed company Syngenta Group is providing rights to genome editing and breeding technologies for academic research globally.
Available through the company’s collaboration platform Shoots by Syngenta, the rights to certain intellectual property are related to optimised CRISPR-Cas12a and gene-editing enabled breeding tools.
“The increased use of CRISPR in agriculture can transform the way we approach plant breeding, accelerating the discovery and deployment of innovations that provide growers more productive and resilient crops,” Syngenta head of global seeds research Gusui Wu said on 4 June.
“We are inviting universities and academic institutions from around the world to help us drive innovation to improve the sustainability of agriculture.”
Created last year, the company said the aim of the Shoots by Syngenta collaboration platform was to bring together academics, research institutes and other entities – together with Syngenta’s global network of more than 6,000 scientists – to develop solutions that mitigated climate change, enhanced biodiversity, and better serve smallholder as well as large-scale farmers.
Syngenta Group is owned by Sinochem, a Chinese state-owned enterprise.
With four business units – Syngenta Crop Protection; Syngenta Seeds, ADAMA, and Syngenta Group China – the seeds business unit sells genetically modified (GM) seeds for corn and soyabean crops.
The percentage of Syngenta Group revenues generated from biotech seeds was approximately 6% in 2020, representing about 40% of its global seeds sales, according to the company website.
Key countries where the group’s GM corn and/or soyabean seeds are cultivated include Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the Philippines, Vietnam and the USA.
