Bayer bets on crop gene-editing to survive and thrive amid climate uncertainty

04 Sep 2023 --- German multinational biotechnology and pharmaceutical company Bayer has teamed up with gene-editing company Pairwise to develop a new generation of short-stature corn. The collaboration aims to offer farmers around the world with more sustainable and resilient corn varieties.

Short-stature corn is a novel innovation that reduces the height of corn plants by 30% to 40% compared to traditional corn. This makes them more resistant to extreme weather events and strong winds that cause crop losses due to lodging or falling over. Short-stature corn also enables farmers to apply inputs such as water, fertilizer and pesticides more precisely and efficiently throughout the growing season.

The two companies have signed a new five-year, multi-million dollar deal to apply Pairwise’s Fulcrum platform to Bayer’s Preceon Smart Corn System.

Meanwhile, Bayer has also announced that between 10% to 15% of Brazil’s total soybean area will be grown using its genetically modified biotech seed Intacta2 Xtend in the 2023/2024 season, expected to begin in mid-September.

A sample of farmers that used Intacta2 Xtend showed that producers that reached 100 bags per hectare tripled – the national average in Brazil is around 60 bags per hectare.

Continued partnership
The two businesses just ended an initial collaboration in June 2023, which delivered 27 new traits that Bayer is now testing for their potential to boost crop yields and reduce inputs. Some promising outcomes include corn plants with 20% more kernel row numbers, which could lead to higher yields.

Moreover, the edited soy is less affected by Asian soybean rust, potentially reducing the need to use fungicides, according to Bayer.

The two companies have signed a new five-year deal to apply Pairwise’s Fulcrum platform to Bayer’s Preceon Smart Corn System.“Pairwise’s proprietary base editing tools allow for specific changes at virtually any location in the genome, which has the potential to make targeted and much-needed improvements in agriculture,” says Bob Reiter, head of R&D at Bayer’s Crop Science Division.

“These kinds of new genomic techniques are extraordinarily focused and produce results much more quickly and precisely than the conventional breeding process, ensuring that we can accelerate the delivery of solutions that growers need.”

Gene editing arsenal
Pairwise’s toolbox of gene editing techniques includes its Redraw technology, or RNA-encoded DNA replacement of alleles with CRISPR, which uses precise templated editing to make “any type of small edit at CRISPR-targeted sites.”

CRISPR is a gene-editing technique used to make changes to the DNA of a plant, bush or tree, to bring out desired nutritional characteristics or to dial down undesired elements.

This process allows scientists to tap into what traditional crossbreeding can do but in a much shorter time.

Another tool is Sharc, “a proprietary enzyme that works well for cutting, base editing, and Redraw editing.”

Both tools will be used in advancing short-stature corn.

“Working closely with Bayer on furthering this revolution in corn gives us the market reach to enable our technology innovations to adjust to the biggest challenge of our time more quickly: the changing climate,” says Tom Adams, co-founder and CEO at Pairwise. 

In May, Pairwise announced a line of mixed leafy greens, which will be the first consumer food in the US developed using the groundbreaking genome-editing crossbreeding technology. The product is marketed as having double the nutritional value of traditional romaine lettuce.The disastrous drought in Argentina has now put Brazil as the world’s largest seller of soybean meal, according to USDA.

Nonetheless, the most notable scientific advance is in removing part of the bitter taste found in some vegetables.

Brazil leads global soybean meal exports
Argentina, a powerhouse in soybean meal exports, has been battered by a calamitous drought that halved its farming output of the crop. 

Initial estimates by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in June put the soybean meal production of the country at 25 million metric tons, already down 43% from a year earlier. However, production was further revised in July down to 21.25 million metric tons. 

Nonetheless, USDA reported a silver lining as “precipitation levels [in Argentina] have improved in recent months across much of the growing region.”

The disastrous drought has now put Brazil, whose soybean meal exports are predicted to amount this season to 21.5 million metric tons, as the world’s largest seller, according to USDA.

Bayer’s gene-edited seed could reach over six million metric hectares in the new season, being the third supplying seed in Brazil. 

By Marc Cervera