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Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation
Agriculture
What questions do you have about this RFP?
Get them answered by the team at BASF.
Background

The development of transgenic plants constitutes an important step in the discovery of novel agronomic traits. Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a commonly used vehicle in plant genetic engineering, delivering foreign DNA into plant cells through its T-DNA transfer system. 

 

The optimized combination of T-DNA vectors, Agrobacterium strains and phytohormones often helps in establishing high transformation rates in crops. However, the process can result in unintended outcomes, such as the insertion of truncated or multiple copies of T-DNA. These issues can result in altered gene expression, instability in subsequent generations, and undesired phenotypic traits in the plants. Ultimately, these inconsistencies increase the time and cost required to develop stable, market-ready transgenic plants and limit the reliability of the transformation process for commercial applications. 

 

Improving the precision and stability of single T-DNA integrations would enhance the overall success and efficiency of plant transformation procedures.

What we're looking for

We are seeking to collaborate with researchers and organizations to develop a protocol that improves the efficiency of Agrobacterium transformations, generating high proportions of transgenic plants with intact, single copy T-DNA insertions through tissue culture regeneration.

Solutions of interest include:
  • Genetically engineered Agrobacterium strains, modified T-DNA, and/or optimized bacterial/plant gene expression components.
  • Helper plasmids or novel synthetic components that enhance transformation.
  • Addition of small molecules or chemicals as components of the plant tissue culture media.
Our must-have requirements are:
  • Improve the efficiency in generating single-copy T-DNA insertions via Agrobacterium transformation.
  • Applicable across multiple crops.
Our nice-to-have's are:
  • Scalable innovation suited for a high-throughput transformation pipeline.
  • Preferred crop is soybean.
What's out of scope:
  • Solutions involving components from restricted organisms (e.g., viruses, humans and pathogens) or hazardous small molecules and chemicals.
Acceptable technology readiness levels (TRL):
Levels 1-5
What we can offer you
Eligible partnership models:
Sponsored research
Co-development
Benefits:
Sponsored Research
Funding is proposal-dependent and typically ranges from $25,000 - $150,000 for a proof-of-concept. For the right proposal, we would be open to a two-year collaboration of $300k+.
Expertise
Partners will have access to internal team/experts as appropriate.
Data
Partners can leverage the data set for additional insights regarding the solution.
Facilities and Services
Partners can send send samples for analysis at our facilities. We would do internal validation testing in our crops.
Reviewers
LJ
Lauren Junker
Technology Scout
TH
Tom Holcombe
Collaboration & Scouting NA
EI
Emir Islamovic
Innovation and Partnership Manager
KB
Kavita Bitra
Technology scout
SS
Sophia Steffens
Innovation & Scouting
Q&A with BASF

The Q&A is now closed.

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Most upvoted
Q.
Is there a range in the amount of $ dollars for this RFP. My institution requires to know the amount before submitting a proposal.
1
A.
Hi Chris, Thank you for the question. There is a specified budget available for this RFP but our team is not willing to share the exact budget at this stage. One criteria to determine the budget depends on the scope and the quality of proposal received. If the approach is very unique there is an opportunity for a collaboration even more than a year. If it's very early stage it can be a short term proof of concept project with a small budget. Hope it helps. Thanks, Reviewer team.
KB
Kavita Bitra, Technology scout, BASF
October 21, 2024
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0
Q.
Will a funding decision be made off of the proposals submitted? We have different levels of approval and are trying to decide what is appropriate.
JG
Jada Gailey, Research Development, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater
November 7, 2024
1
A.
Hi, Thank you for your question. Yes funding decision for a proposal will be made dependent on the relevance to what we are looking for and strength of the proposals received. Regards, Team member.
KB
Kavita Bitra, Technology scout, BASF
November 7, 2024
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0
0
Q.
Kavita, we have already published and have a patent on lowering integrated T-DNA copy number by launching T-DNA from the Agrobacterium genome. Please feel free to contact me about this.
1
A.
Thanks for the information.
KB
Kavita Bitra, Technology scout, BASF
November 20, 2024
Is this response helpful?
0
1
A.
Kavita, as I said, we have developed a method that increases single-copy transgene insertion into plant genomes. The drawback is that transformation frequency is reduced. I have some ideas how to increase transformation frequency and retain single-copy integration. I would like to talk with someone about this, but not on-line for everyone to read. Would you please contact me at gelvin@purdue.edu. Thanks, Stan Gelvin
1
Q.
Are you interested in protoplast-based CRISPR RNP editing techniques for oilseed crops for producing transgene-free genotypes?
1
A.
This is not in scope for us.
KB
Kavita Bitra, Technology scout, BASF
November 27, 2024
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