A partnership between the two companies aims to tackle the growing threat of rising global temperatures to strawberry yields, paving the way for heat-tolerant varieties
Plant genome-editing technology company Hudson River and plant engineering company Plantik have announced a partnership to introduce heat tolerance to commercial strawberries.
The partnership will see the heat tolerance targets identified and validated by Plantik in tomatoes combine with the transgene-free strawberry genome-editing methods developed by Hudson River in order to translate trait discoveries into improved strawberry varieties.
As heatwaves intensify across the globe, strawberries are among the most vulnerable crops, with high temperatures disrupting flowering and fruit set, reducing yield and negatively impacting fruit quality.
“Heat tolerance has become a must-have trait for many crops across the globe,” said Ying Shao, co-founder and CEO of Plantik. “Plants’ ability to withstand increasingly intensified and repeated heatwaves while preserving yield will continue to be a top priority in the coming years.”
The partnership brings together unique technologies developed by each company. Plantik’s Atlantis platform offers proprietary discovery capabilities to identify high-potential targets for engineering complex traits without compromise.
Hudson River’s BioMaas platform enables breeders to access its advanced genome-editing capabilities without having to build the R&D and technology in-house.
“Throughout this collaboration, BioMaas will act as a bridge between trait innovators and breeders – helping trait companies translate their discoveries into crop-specific applications, while giving breeders an accessible route to valuable new traits,” the company stated. “Through BioMaas, strawberry breeders will be able to access unique and proprietary traits from specialised discovery companies such as Plantik, helping them expand and accelerate their innovation pipelines. The partnership will tackle the heat tolerance challenge in strawberries as a starting point before applying it in other crops.”
Lotte Westerhof, CSO of Hudson River, commented: “This collaboration is a perfect example of how trait knowledge can be leveraged from one crop to another, without the trait needing to be present in the breeder’s germplasm or lengthy backcrossing and selection. With BioMaas, we introduce the desired trait directly into elite germplasm, creating material ready for commercialisation in a single generation.”
Validation trials are underway between the two companies, which are welcoming trait challenges from companies seeking to implement these into their strawberry varieties.
