New research led by Professor Anne Osbourn at the John Innes Centre (Norwich UK) has recently been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS Dec 5, 2006, vol 103, no 49, pp18,848-18,853) describing a novel cytochrome P450 enzyme found in oats, called Sad2, that is involved in the synthesis of avenacin in the roots which protects the plant against the fungal disease “take-all.”

The Sad2 gene technology is the subject of a pending worldwide patent application (Publication Number WO 2006/044508) assigned to PBL, who are working closely with Dupont to develop the commercial applications of this technology.

For more information contact Dr Adam Hajjar (adam@pbltechnology.com).