Morflora's TraitUP Wins Agrow Awards for the Best Novel Agricultural Biotechnology | Seed Today

TraitUP™ platform applicability now validated with soy, corn and rice, in addition to vegetable seeds

Sharsheret, Israel (November 18, 2013) --Morflora’s revolutionary TraitUP™ technology won the Best Novel Agricultural Biotechnology in the Agrow Awards prestigious competition. The award recognizes the most significant practical application of a novel biotechnology to the advancement of crop protection and agriculture.

TraitUP™ is a generic non-transgenic and non heritable platform that enables the delivery of DNA into a wide variety of seeds in a fast and reliable manner, to protect them for a single generation from a wide range of diseases, and introduce new desired traits for plant and crop enhancement.

Morflora now reveals that the platform has been successfully tested to work with soy, corn and rice in addition to tomato, onion and other vegetable seeds. Morflroa is further extending that capability to additional seeds including wheat, canola and more. The treatment protocols can seamlessly integrate into the existing commercial seed treatment protocols in the market...

More @ Morflora's TraitUP Wins Agrow Awards for the Best Novel Agricultural Biotechnology | Seed Today:

Moriflora

TraitUP™ is a revolutionary, fast, non-transgenic platform for trait introduction into seeds enabling immediate expression of traits in plants. This patent-pending method can easily be implemented as part of universal commercial seed treatment procedures. This pioneering technology enables seed companies and breeders for the first time to quickly provide protection against threats to crops, and at a later stage, introduce improved traits into seeds

The TraitUP™ components and the introduced gene(s) do not integrate into the plant’s genome and as of current knowledge are not heritable. Expression or silencing of genes of interest occurs within a few days in all herbaceous plants tested, including tomatoes and wheat, and in up to a month as tested in woody trees. Expression is durable and persists throughout the life span of the plant (read more in the science section).

Until today, introduction of genes to a given plant, by breeders relied on classical methods which can take up anytime between three to seven years to develop and express the desired trait in particular plant species, or by genetic engineering which is time and capital consuming.

Morflora’s TraitUP™ offers for the first time an innovative, fast and non-transgenic alternative for protecting and enhancing crops, easily by a simple seed treatment and expressed within days. Employing TraitUP™ reduces the dependency on chemical control, resulting in reduced pollution, healthier crops and increased yield.

The capability of adding desired traits into seeds for both protection and enhancement purposes, in a scaled-up commercial fashion which takes only a few days, constitutes a paradigm shift in the seed industry worldwide.

Science

The use of viruses as vectors to introduce genes into plants is the backdrop to Morflora’s scientific innovation. During a sponsored research, conducted at the research lab of acclaimed plant virologists Prof. Ilan Sela from the Hebrew University, scientists developed highly efficient vectors for introduction of genes or DNA sequences that can be expressed in the host plant tissues or silence genes of interest. The vectors, commercially referred to as TraitUP™, were scientifically named IL-60 and 1470 plasmids.

IL-60 and 1470 plasmids are a disarmed extraction from Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), that are no longer bound to spread in the limited hosting plants of the TYLCV, but rather in a generic manner through the a wide range of plant species, including wheat (Triticum durum), pepper (Capsicum annuum), grapevine (Vitis vinifera), orange, and olive (Olea europaea). The findings were published in a paper titled A Universal Expression/Silencing Vector in Plants*, leading to a global interest

TraitUP™ plasmid components do not integrate into the plants' genome and are not heritable. Expression or silencing of desired genes develops within a few days in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), wheat, and many other herbaceous plants, and in up to a month in woody trees. Expression, as tested in tomato, is durable and persists throughout the life span of the plant.

Further scientific breakthrough includes using TraitUP™ to deliver a complete operon over 7Kb in size, resulting in the expression of a full metabolic pathway in plants to produce PRN. For an additional explanation on the PRN please see: Expression of an Entire Bacterial Operon in Plant
Rita Mozes-Koch, Ofer Gover, Edna Tanne, Yuval Peretz, Eyal Maori, Leonid Chernin, and Ilan Sela*
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food, and Environment,
Rehovot 76100, Israel

Recent breakthrough for Morflora is the success in developing seed treatments, in which TraitUP™ is used to deliver desired genes into seeds. This innovative development is led by Prof. Haim Rabinowitch, globally renowned for achievements in tomato breeding, who has joined Morflora’s scientific team to further push the boundaries of plant science.

Not often are scientists fortunate enough to reveal a discovery which will impact science, industry and economy. This discovery requires further experimentation, yet we believe that the IL-60, on which TraitUP™ platform is based, is one of those discoveries, with a potential to impact the food supply of mankind while facilitating an evolution in modern agriculture.

* Yuval Peretz, Rita Mozes Koch, Fuad Akad, Edna Tanne, Henryk Czosnek and Ilan Sela (2007) A Universal Expression/Silencing Vector in Plants. Plant Physiology 145:1251-1263 http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/content/short/145/4/1251
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences, Institute for Plant Sciences and Genetics, Rehovot 76100, Israel)