Senesco Technologies, Inc. (AMEX: SNT) announced today that it has signed a Development and License Agreement with The Scotts Company, which will enable the two companies to incorporate Senesco’s proprietary Factor 5A and DHS technology into a variety of garden plants, bedding plants and turfgrasses. The financial terms of the agreement were undisclosed.

Senesco has demonstrated that the Company’s technology can yield a variety of beneficial traits including improved growth, increased resistance to environmental stresses, and longer-lived plants.

“The Senesco technology holds wonderful potential to enhance the performance and environmental contributions of turfgrass and ornamentals”, said Bob Harriman, The Scotts Company’s Vice President of Biotechnology. “This technology may be used in Scotts products to delay aging in flowers, providing longer-lasting blooms that add color and beauty. Scotts may also use it in turfgrasses to make them more environmentally-friendly by increasing disease resistance, drought tolerance, and nutrient use efficiency. We work with a broad range of plant types, and it is exceedingly rare to have a technology that can be utilized across your whole product line. Needless to say, we are excited to be working with the Senesco technology, and their first class group of scientists.”

Sascha Fedyszyn, Senesco’s Vice President of Corporate Development commented, “Senesco will work with Scotts to implement our technology with the goal of developing superior turfgrass and ornamental plants. Scotts’ aggressive research and development programs, coupled with their position as the leader in the lawn and garden industry, make them an ideal licensing partner for Senesco. We believe that signing an agreement with a company of Scotts’ reputation is a great success for Senesco’s agricultural commercialization program.”

The Scotts Company is the world's largest marketer of branded consumer products for lawn and garden care, with a full range of products for professional horticulture as well. The Company owns the industry's most recognized brands. In the U.S., the Company's Scotts®, Miracle-Gro® and Ortho® brands are market leading in their categories, as is the consumer Roundup® brand which is marketed in North America and most of Europe exclusively by Scotts and owned by Monsanto. In the Europe, Scotts' brands include Weedol®, Pathclear®, Evergreen®, Levington®, Miracle-Gro®, KB®, Fertiligene® and Substral®.

Senesco takes its name from the scientific term for the aging of plant cells: senescence. The Company has developed technology that regulates cell life. Delaying cell breakdown in plants extends freshness after harvesting, while increasing crop yields and resistance to environmental stress for flowers, fruits and vegetables. The Company believes that its technology can be used to develop superior strains of crops without any modification other than delaying natural plant senescence. Senesco has begun to explore ways to trigger or delay cell death in mammals (apoptosis) to determine if the technology is applicable in medicine.

Accelerating apoptosis may have applications to development of cancer treatments. Delaying apoptosis may have applications to certain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, glaucoma, ischemia and arthritis, among others. Senesco partners with leading-edge companies and earns research and development fees for applying its technology to enhance its partners' products. Senesco is headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and utilizes research laboratories at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada and the University of Colorado in Denver, Colorado.