Cibus issued new U.S. patent covering its gene-editing technologies in plants

Cibus, a leader in advanced plant-breeding technologies, today announced it has been granted a patent further protecting its proprietary, precision gene-editing technologies when a Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat (CRISPR) nuclease is used in combination with its Gene Repair Oligonucleotide (GRON) to enable the editing of DNA.

 

The use of Cibus RTDS technologies enables Cibus to precisely target and direct a plant's natural gene-editing processes, with results similar to natural plant cross-breeding that has been a staple of farming for thousands of years. The approach allows Cibus to introduce beneficial plant traits that can improve nutrition, increase crop yields, and reduce the environmental impact of farming. The ability to truly edit genes allows Cibus to use methods that are differentiated and non-transgenic in process and product. Non-transgenic means that no foreign genetic material has been integrated into the plant.

 

Peter Beetham, co-founder and chief executive officer said: "The industry and global regulatory authorities, are moving to a world without new transgenic (GMO) traits. A world where the major crops, including canola, rice, soybeans, potatoes, and corn, will have multiple-stacked, non-transgenic traits covering everything from disease resistance, pest resistance and weed control (herbicide tolerance – using less chemistry), to quality traits, like reduced allergens. Many crops, such as rice and wheat, have never participated in the first wave of GMO traits. They will be the major benefactors of the new non-transgenic trait movement.

 

"Patents are an important step in Cibus establishing itself as the global leader in non-transgenic trait development. Using our technologies, we expect to have families of stacked, non-transgenic traits in all major crops."

 

Cibus was issued Patent No.9,957,515 from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office protecting the use of its GRON when introduced into a plant cell to effect a mediated genetic change when used in combination with a CRISPR.

 

The Cibus Rapid Trait Development System, or RTDS, is a family of techniques protected by patents and trade secrets that enable precise edits to a plant gene, and the regeneration of an entire plant from the single edited cell, all without the integration of foreign DNA that would render the plant transgenic. The Cibus non-transgenic approach is recognized in certain key commercial markets as non-GMO and provides for a rapid introduction of multiple plant traits.