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The Genomics in Business 2009 conference
convened approximately 160 renowned industry
leaders, visionaries and scientists, executives
of cutting-edge companies and business analysts
in Amsterdam to discuss about the latest
innovations and commercial applications of
Genomics in the Agro-Food sector.
With an Asian, USA and European perspective, new
opportunities and challenges for the plant
biotech industry were highlighted and discussed
on topics like biofuels, nutritional food,
health products, plant breeding, new sequencing
and diagnostic technologies. In addition the
participants exchanged business models and
successful innovations to achieve strong market
positions.
For more information on the conference and on
the next edition in 2011 visit
www.genomicsinbusiness2009.com
or contact
info@iventus.nl. |
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KeyBase™
A new mutagenesis technique
August 2009
During the
Genomics in Business 2009 conference in Amsterdam,
KeyGene® announced its new
technology: KeyBase™. KeyBase™ is an innovative
method to achieve rapid and more precise plant breeding. The
method enables the introduction of small desired alterations in
the genetic material of plants, using a natural process. This
KeyBase™ process can be compared with natural mutagenesis,
with the difference that a single change is induced at one
specific location on the DNA.
New technologies necessary for worldwide food production
The growing and aging world population, the exhaustion of
natural resources and the consequences of climate change result
in increasing food shortages and challenges for food production
worldwide. It is necessary to significantly increase the
production, quality and yield stability of food crops in a fast
and sustainable manner. Future food production needs innovative
techniques. KeyGene® is
frontrunner in molecular breeding techniques.
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How KeyBase™ works |
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KeyBase™ uses a sort of mould (made up of
special chemically altered nucleotides) that
searches for and alters a specific base in the
DNA that one wishes to change. This mould is
subsequently broken down and disappears from the
cell.
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KeyBase™: a natural process
The name KeyBase™ refers to a natural process that occurs
in the cell, namely the continuous repair of damaged building
blocks of DNA.
KeyBase™ makes use of this inherent plant cell repair
system and can guide the change of a single base at just one
position. The KeyBase™ process is comparable with natural
mutagenesis, just like the creation of natural mutations, e.g.
by UV light.
With KeyBase™ no recombination or shuffling of the
genetic material occurs and no extra genetic material from a
different source is added.
The advantage of KeyBase™ compared with natural
mutagenesis is the targeting of a single gene.
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Left: Wild
type tobacco
Right: Herbicide resistant tobacco
(KeyBase™ mutation) |
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Classical plant breeding: indirect and time consuming
Mutagenesis has always been used for classical plant breeding in
countries all over the world to produce improved plant varieties
for the agricultural and horticultural markets. These methods
use special chemicals to introduce changes in the genetic
material of plants. This is very labor intensive and not only
desired changes but also unintentional and undesirable
alterations in the genetic material occur. Due to this, negative
characteristics can be generated, necessitating an extensive
crossing and selection procedure to generate the desired plant
variety. Our new form of mutagenesis is more accurate, because
only a single DNA nucleotide change is induced at one specific
location in the DNA.
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