The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has approved US agricultural bioscience company Yield10 Bioscience’s genetically modified (GM) camelina varieties to be grown and bred in the USA.
The approvals would help commercialise camelina in the USA for the production of omega-3 oil for industries including aquafeed and human nutrition, the company said on 21 March.
“In 2024, we plan to focus on executing our development programme, building seed inventory in anticipation of commercial-scale planting and engaging with potential commercial partners to enable future commercial sale of omega-3 oil and meal in target markets,” Yield10 Bioscience chief scientific officer Kristi Snell said.
The use of omega-3 oil and meal in target markets could still be subject to regulation from other regulatory authorities in target geographies, Snell added.
Yield10 said it also had plans to work towards setting up a partnership agreement with global aquaculture feed firm BioMar Group.
In addition, the company said it planned to continue field testing and seed scale-up activities for its engineered omega-3 camelina varieties to increase seed inventory for future planting as well as to produce omega-3 oil for use in business development activities.
Woburn-headquartered Yield10 is also engineering second generation omega-3 camelina lines with herbicide tolerance traits for large-scale commercial planting.
