The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has given approval for US agricultural bioscience company Yield10 Bioscience’s glufosinate-tolerant camelina to be grown and bred in the USA.
Yield10’s stacked herbicide tolerant (HT) camelina was also approved for use in the USA.
The approvals would help commercialise camelina in industries including biofuels and aquaculture, the company said on 15 November.
“We believe glufosinate-tolerant camelina will provide growers with new options for weed management,” Yield10 Bioscience chief scientific officer Kristi Snell said.
“We are building seed inventory of our spring glufosinate-tolerant camelina to support commercial launch as early as 2025 to support grower contracts to produce low-carbon feedstock oil for the biofuel market.”
Meanwhile, Yield10 said it was developing spring and winter camelina varieties with stacked herbicide tolerance traits to achieve large-acreage adoption of the crop in North America.
“Earlier this year, we conducted our first field tests of stacked HT camelina and reported positive results. Going forward, we expect to generate additional field data as well as build seed inventory to support the commercial launch of our stacked HT camelina varieties,” Snell added.
Woburn-headquartered Yield10 develops crop systems and uses its ‘Trait Factory’ and its camelina ‘Fast Field Testing’ system to develop seed traits for the agriculture and food industries.
The company is pursuing a partnering approach with major agricultural companies to drive new traits into development for canola, soyabean, corn and other crops.