Cibus LLC, the U.S. plant breeding technology company, today announced a collaboration with the National Grain Sorghum Producers Foundation to develop and commercialize new traits directed toward the sorghum industry using Cibus’ proprietary non-GM gene conversion technology known as the Rapid Trait Development System (RTDS™).

This collaboration could transform the way seeds with new traits are produced, while answering the concerns that surround genetically modified (GMO) crops. “For the first time since GMO products hit the market more than a decade ago, there is a viable technology that can replicate the attributes of certain GMO crops without the introduction of foreign genetic material,” said Dr. Keith Walker, President of Cibus. “RTDS is an environmentally safe, smart-breeding technology that enables seed producers to develop plants with commercially valuable characteristics. Unlike genetic engineering, which takes exotic genetic material from one species and inserts it into another, thus producing GMO crops, RTDS introduces genetic traits through a natural process of gene repair within the very same plant species.” RTDS operates exclusively within the genome of the plant, just like normal plant breeding, and thus eliminates environmental and health risks as well as other unintended and unknown consequences associated with GMO crops.

Cibus technology produces changes within a plant species that could only occur in nature, but it does so in a directed way. Thanks in part to recent advancements in genome mapping, RTDS is more precise and much faster than traditional hit-and-miss plant breeding and transgenic breeding technology, both of which can take years to perfect a trait. Cibus technology delivers the advantages that farmers seek in GMO crops such as herbicide tolerance or increased yield, but also benefits from the clear path to market and consumer confidence of traditionally bred plants. Cibus’ regulatory advantage and the speed of this plant breeding technology promise the greatly accelerated development of new value added traits in readily accepted crops.

For Sorghum growers, this technology promises a host of commercially valuable traits. “The partnership with Cibus offers sorghum producers the unique ability to control their future by taking trait development into their own hands,” said Dr. Bruce Maunder, President of the National Grain Sorghum Producers Foundation (NGSPF). “The sorghum industry has been in transition as it continues to consolidate into a few large players. Although we have good working relationships with the major seed companies, sorghum is a low priority for the application of biotechnology resources. Primary research and commercial focuses are corn, soybeans and cotton.”

David Voss, Vice President of Commercial Development for Cibus, said: “Cibus’ RTDS plant breeding technology constitutes a significant breakthrough for both the sorghum industry and the seed industry in general. The worldwide Genetically Modified debate has caused major barriers for technology companies to develop new traits for agriculture. This is particularly true for smaller acreage crops like sorghum as regulatory burdens to bring new transgenic traits to market are cost prohibited. RTDS offers the seed industry a viable alternative. We look forward to working with the National Grain Sorghum Producers Foundation and other commercial partners in applying the RTDS technology to a growing list of crops in the coming years.”

“The Cibus scientific team has worked diligently for a number of years to bring this proprietary technology to practice,” said Walker. “We have now accomplished this in several crops, including canola and rice, and so it is very gratifying to be moving into the commercialization phase with this exciting trait development system. It’s personally gratifying that RTDS can be used in a such a grass roots development project with the National Grain Sorghum Producers Foundation that will directly benefit the American farmer not only with non-GM traits that will improve their farming operation income, but also generating future downstream royalties that can be used to develop other traits that directly benefit the sorghum industry.”

“Like many farmers, I need sorghum in my crop rotation,” said National Sorghum Producers (NSP) President Greg Shelor of Minneola, Kansas. “But to increase profitability, we have some basic needs like better grass and weed control technology. We also need to increase our yields.” These comments are consistent with a recent market research study conducted by Kansas State University surveying more than 600 sorghum producers from across the United States that identified grassy weed control, improved yield, drought tolerance and new uses or markets for sorghum grain as the most important areas for research.

“Sorghum producers must take control of their own destiny—we can’t afford to passively sit on the sidelines and hope that others will develop enhanced traits for us,” added NSP CEO Tim Lust. “Our foundation elected to collaborate with Cibus for several reasons. First, as a small, privately held company, Cibus is easy to work with and willing to share the value created with their technology. NGSPF plans to use revenues derived from this partnership along with producer dollars to reinvest in sorghum variety development, creating a long-term program for sorghum improvement. Second, Cibus has a proven technology with a strong patent estate using RTDS, a system that can develop non-GM traits faster and at lower cost than transgenic alternatives. Third, unlike transgenic crops, RTDS’s all natural crops can go to market directly and will not be subjected to any GMO labeling requirements—RTDS technology can save farmers an estimated $25 million per crop in the United States in regulatory costs. For sorghum producers, this is a clear win.”

About Cibus’ RTDS technology

RTDS technology produces changes within a plant species that could only occur in nature, but does so in a directed way. Thanks in part to recent developments in genome mapping, RTDS is more precise by an order of magnitude and much faster than traditional hit-and-miss plant breeding and transgenic breeding technology, both of which can take years to perfect a trait.

The RTDS process, known as directed mutagenesis, works through the cell’s natural process of gene repair. Every time a cell copies DNA, it makes “scrivener” errors or spelling mistakes.  These variations happen all the time, which is how natural variation occurs.  Cibus’ technology harnesses the cell’s own natural DNA repair machinery to correct such spelling mistakes, thus directing DNA repair enzymes to correct and repair the targeted gene in a specific way in order to produce a desired trait.  The process, in its precision, is similar to altering a letter in a single word contained within a large book. Nothing in the genome other than the changes directed by the process is altered by this approach.

Cibus LLC is a privately held San Diego-based trait development company.  Cibus produces environmentally friendly crop traits for the agricultural community that do not carry the market-resistance or regulatory burden of attributes engineered through the introduction of foreign genetic material.  The Company accomplishes this through the application of a new and proprietary technology called the Rapid Trait Development System (RTDSÔ), which has proven itself in the laboratory with several different crops, and in initial field trials of Cibus’ first commercial crop.

The National Grain Sorghum Producers Foundation was established to promote and fund the improvement of sorghum and its uses both nationally and internationally. The foundation is headquartered in Lubbock, Texas, in the heart of the U.S. Sorghum Belt that stretches from the Rockies to the Mississippi River and from South Texas to South Dakota. The foundation is affiliated with the National Sorghum Producers, an organization that works to ensure the profitability of sorghum production through market development, research, education and legislative representation.