Bayer’s Preceon™ Smart Corn System to CRISPR Pairwise’s Fulcrum™ platform inks five-year collaboration to further advance short-stature corn
Pairwise and Bayer have signed a new five-year multi-million Dollar collaboration to further advance short-stature corn. New agreement will focus on CRISPR applications for Bayer’s Preceon™ Smart Corn System. Collaboration builds on successful initial gene-editing partnership between the two companies that resulted in 27 novel traits being transferred into Bayer’s testing programs.
Pairwise, a food and agriculture company known for bringing the first gene-edited food to the U.S. market, and Bayer partnership focused on innovations in short-stature corn. This new program leverages Pairwise’s Fulcrum™ platform and builds on the success of the companies’ initial five-year collaboration for corn, soy, wheat, cotton, and canola.
Pairwise and Bayer partnership will be focused on optimizing and enhancing gene-edited short-stature corn for future use in Bayer’s Preceon™ Smart Corn System. Short-stature corn – with a targeted height of 30 to 40 % less than traditional corn – is an innovative new approach to growing corn and offers a number of sustainability benefits, including protections from crop loss due to increasingly severe weather events and extreme winds brought about by climate change. Short-stature corn also allows for more precise application of inputs throughout the growing season, sustainably growing more through reduced risk of crop loss.
The initial five-year collaboration focused on corn, soy, wheat, cotton and canola with the aim of empowering producers to grow more with fewer inputs on the same amount of land. The partnership, which concluded in June 2023, resulted in 27 novel traits being transferred into Bayer’s testing programs. Results of the program demonstrated significant commercial value including edited corn phenotypes with a 20 percent increase in kernel row numbers, which could lead to significantly more yield on the same number of acres. Another outcome has been edited soy that reduces the severity of Asian soybean rust, potentially reducing the need for fungicides to combat the disease and protecting the potential for higher yields.
