San Diego, California, USA
January 17, 2024
- Cibus continues to confirm tolerance of HT1 and HT3 rice traits to commercial herbicide application rates in field trials and achievement of the Cibus Powered™ standard
- Following another successful season of field evaluation of HT1 and HT3 rice herbicide tolerance traits, Cibus to begin field scale demonstration in the US Mid-South in preparation for product launch
- Cibus canola Pod Shatter Reduction (PSR) trait continues to demonstrate a high level of pod shatter reduction in seed developer genetics and achievement of the Cibus Powered™ PSR standard
- Multiple canola/WOSR seed developers integrating the Cibus PSR trait into their product lines in preparation for first sales
Cibus, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBUS), a leading agricultural technology company that develops and licenses plant traits to seed companies, today announced that the Company is moving forward in the next step of commercialization of its developed traits.
Rice – HT1 & HT3 traits – First transfer of customer seeds complete
2023 field trial results have confirmed that rice herbicide tolerance (HT) traits, known as HT1 and HT3, met or exceeded performance expectations when evaluated with proposed commercial herbicide application rates. This important step in commercial development has led to the first transfers of customer seeds containing the HT1 and HT3 traits. Additional transfers of both HT traits to seed developers are in progress and this will enable a broad offering of rice hybrids and varieties in the US and international markets in the coming years. Cibus expects to have field scale demonstrations of the HT rice traits in the US Mid-South in 2024 and expand to other geographies in 2025.
“The field results of both HT1 and HT3 rice traits continue to impress, and we’re excited to continue our work with seed developers, University extension workers, and rice growers around the globe, as we get one step closer to product launch,” said Dr. Jim Radtke, Senior Vice President, Product Development for Cibus.
“This is an exciting development for both Cibus and the rice industry,” added Norm Sissons, Senior Vice President, Seed & Traits. “Having not one, but two new HT rice traits coming to market soon will open up new options for weed control for rice growers and demonstrates Cibus’ commitment to rice innovation.”
Canola – Pod Shatter Reduction trait – Carrying commercial momentum into 2024
Cibus also reported that its canola Pod Shatter Reduction (PSR) trait in seed developer genetics performed well and on par with the best available in the industry. Concurrent with the positive field trial results, seed developer lines containing the PSR trait were transferred to multiple companies in 2023 and further transfers are planned in 2024. This important development continues to enable production and testing of seed developer PSR hybrids in 2024, leading to first hybrid sales as early as 2025. Meanwhile, Cibus expects the first field results of its PSR trait in WOSR in the United Kingdom later this year.
Industry leading PSR traits are still not broadly available in the canola/WOSR markets despite years of industry research. Cibus intends to change this by broadly licensing its PSR trait to canola/WOSR seed developers globally, and already has 10 seed developer’s genetics at various stages of gene editing.
"It’s exciting to be on the verge of launching the first gene edited canola trait in North America" said Denise Schmidt, Senior Director, Canola Business & Industry Affairs of Cibus. “Canola growers will have greater flexibility for managing their production and the Cibus Powered™ PSR trait in the seed brand they prefer.”
About the Cibus RTDS®-based High Throughput Breeding System
A key element of Cibus’ technology breakthrough is its High Throughput Breeding Process (referred to as the Trait Machine™ System). The Trait Machine process is a crop specific application of Cibus’ patented Rapid Trait Development System™ (RTDS®). The proprietary technologies in RTDS integrate crop specific cell biology platforms with a series of gene editing technologies to enable a system of end-to-end crop specific precision breeding. It is the core technology platform for Cibus’ Trait Machine: the first standardized end-to-end semi-automated crop specific gene editing system that directly edits a seed company’s elite germplasm. Each Trait Machine process requires a crop specific cell biology platform that enables Cibus to edit a single cell from a customers’ elite germplasm and grow that edited cell into a plant with the Cibus edits. Cibus has Trait Machine platforms developed for canola and rice and has already begun transferring their elite germplasm with Cibus edits back to customers.
The traits from Cibus’ RTDS-based High Throughput Breeding System are indistinguishable from traits developed using conventional breeding or from nature. RTDS does not use any foreign DNA or transgenes. Under the European Commission current proposals, it is expected that products from Cibus’ RTDS gene editing platform such as its pod shatter reduction trait and Sclerotinia resistance traits for Canola and Winter Oilseed Rape would be considered ‘Conventional-like'.
Cibus believes that RTDS and the Trait Machine process represent the technological breakthrough in plant breeding that is the ultimate promise of plant gene editing: “High Throughput Gene Editing Systems operating as an extension of seed company breeding programs.”
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