Rehovot, Israel
July 18, 2011
- microRNA genes have a substantial advantage in the ability to improve various traits in plants, such as abiotic stress tolerance. Annual losses due to drought-related damages are estimated at $13 billion.
- Platform will significantly increase the company's capabilities to identify plant microRNAs that are associated with the Key traits in major crops and is expected to accelerate the development of plants with improved traits
- Platform now contains more than 4,500 plant microRNAs, a significant improvement from the previous version and an automated tool for gene target prediction
Rosetta Green Ltd. ("Company") (TASE:RSTG), which develops improved crop traits for the agriculture and alternative fuels industries using unique genes called microRNAs, announced the launch of an improved platform for microRNA discovery. This platform will significantly increase the company's capabilities to identify plant microRNAs that are correlated with key traits in major crops.
The improved platform contains more than 4,500 plant microRNAs and represents a significant improvement from the previous version. The improved platform is expected to advance the company's ability to identify new microRNAs and to correlate these microRNAs with key traits in major crops.
The improved platform also includes a fully-automated tool for target prediction, which will facilitate the identification of genes that are regulated by the microRNAs. This will improve the company's ability to correlate between microRNAs and genes, providing comprehensive information regarding various pathways and processes.
The platform has already been successfully tested on 10 of the most important crops for agriculture and energy: corn, soybean, wheat, cotton, canola, tomato, potato, castor bean, sugarcane and banana. These tests demonstrate the utility and versatility of the new platform in the discovery of microRNAs and their target genes across a wide range of different plant species.
Dr. Rudy Maor, Rosetta Green's CTO, said, "We continue to work on the discovery of additional microRNA sequences and the validation of their specific roles in key processes in plants. We strongly believe that microRNA genes have a substantial advantage in the ability to improve various traits in plants, such as abiotic stress tolerance, disease resistance, increased yield and increased fertilizers use efficiency. Launching the platform is expected to significantly improve our microRNA discovery capabilities and to accelerate the development of plants with improved traits".
Every year, farmers around the world are at risk of being affected by drought and annual losses due to drought-related damages are estimated at $13 billion. Increasing the efficiency by which plants absorb fertilizers by about 30% can reduce farmers' annual operating costs by about $1 billion.
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