St.-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec
April 25, 2006
DNA LandMarks Inc., a world leader in DNA marker technology and a BASF Plant Science unit, announced today the launch of a major SNP marker development project for tomato. The project represents a collaboration by a number of private companies including Nunhems Netherlands BV, Redi Plants Corp. and Western Seed International BV.Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are rapidly becoming the marker system of choice based on the fact that they are highly efficient to use. SNPs hold tremendous promise in expanding the utility of marker-assisted plant breeding. Potential applications include marker-assisted trait screening, accelerated marker-assisted backcrossing, quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping and genetic fingerprinting.
The development of new genetic markers in commercial tomato (L. esculentum) is of particular interest since the low level of polymorphism in this crop has limited what breeders could do with markers in the past. With the addition of a large SNP library to their marker toolbox, breeders will be able to accelerate their programs and manage complex, multigenic traits.
“We believe that developing a library of SNP markers in tomato will deliver tremendous value to breeders. We have already seen this in the main field crops such as corn and soybean. Tomato now stands to benefit in the same way.” said DNA LandMarks CEO Dr. Joachim Richert.
The tomato SNP marker consortium is one of a number of initiatives that DNA LandMarks is spearheading in its drive to deliver improved marker services to the entire agricultural value chain.
Since its foundation in 1995, DNA LandMarks Inc. has been a world leader in DNA marker development and applications. Today the company offers a full array of marker technologies to the agricultural sector from development to mapping to high-throughput application. DNA LandMarks is a unit of BASF Plant Science and its Centre of Excellence for DNA sequencing and genotyping.
To exploit the potential of biotechnology, BASF, a leading player in agricultural products and fine chemicals, established BASF Plant Science as its proper plant biotechnology company in 1998. BASF Plant Science operates a research and development platform in Europe and North America, where more than 500 employees are developing products in the following areas: crops for a more efficient agriculture and for the production of renewable raw materials as well as plants for healthier nutrition. Examples are plants with higher vitamin content, or with omega-3-fatty acids that can prevent cardiovascular diseases.
BASF is the world’s leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. In 2005, BASF had approximately 81,000 employees and posted sales of more than €42.7 billion.
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