Developing Frontier Agri-Science Inc technology for crop drought tolerance

Frontier Agri-Science Inc .是一家专注于作物性状开发的加拿大农业生物技术公司。他们的主要重点领域之一是发展抗旱能力，这是维持世界范围内作物产量的唯一最重要的问题。现在有四个基因靶点，当使用生物技术方法进行改变时，frontier已经证明可以使几种植物物种具有耐旱性，包括拟南芥、油菜和草坪草。然而，对于像前沿这样的小公司来说，从监管的角度来看，采用转基因方法来改善作物的成本太高了，除非把这项技术卖给一家大型种子公司。

Frontier Agri-Science Inc is a Canadian agricultural biotechnology company focused on crop trait development. One of their primary areas of focus is in developing drought tolerance which is the single most important problem in maintaining crop yields world-wide. There are now four gene targets that when altered using a biotechnological approach that Frontiers has demonstrated can give drought tolerance in several plant species including Arabidopsis, canola and turfgrass. However, for a small company like Frontiers it is far too expensive from a regulatory point of view to take a GM approach to crop improvement unless the technology is sold to one of the large seed companies. An alternative approach is to use nucleotide sequence variation that has been utilized for crop improvement since domestication first began. TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes) is one such reverse genetic (non-transgenic) strategy that combines traditional mutagenesis with high-throughput, cost effective discovery of single-nucleotide changes. Frontier has recently compiled a series of rice TILLING lines, representing four genes that regulate the expression of their previously identified molecular genetic targets that confer abiotic stress resistance in Arabidopsis, canola and bentgrass. While rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most agronomically important crops and is a staple food for more than half of the world's population, it is also an ideal genetic system to study traits of importance with the knowledge used transferred to other crops of interest including wheat and corn. Successful outcomes will allow Frontier to confidently invest the time and financial resources it will require to move forward with the development and marketing of new varieties and commercial relationships. This work represents the first step in establishing a collaborative relationship between Frontier and the Rothstein research group with the potential to act as a pipeline from technology discovery, through early stage demonstration and onward toward commercialization.