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UD AND DUPONT PARTNER
TO MARKET HYBRID CORN
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The University of Delaware and DuPont Co. have signed a commercial deal for a disease-resistant corn jointly developed by the two institutions. DuPont's Pioneer Hi-Bred seed business is now marketing the hybrid corn, which has a gene that helps it resist a disease called anthracnose stalk rot. The disease, which reduces crop yields by rotting the stalks of corn plants, is blamed for an estimated $1 billion in annual losses in North America.
The university will receive royalties from sales of the corn seed, although specific terms of the dealware not disclosed.
The commercial introduction represents the culmination of decades of work by James Hawk, a UD professor of plant and soil sciences, who began working in the 1980s with a line of "tropical" corn from Mississippi that was resistant to the fungus that causes anthracnose stalk rot, but difficult to grow.
Hawk and research associates used conventional breeding techniques to help introduce the gene responsible for anthracnose resistance into easier-to-grow lines of corn.
In 1999, the university entered a collaborative research agreement with DuPont. A few years later, research teams from UD and DuPont teamed up on the anthracnose-resistant corn. DuPont scientists helped "map" the gene by identifying molecular markers -- small pieces of genetic material that point to particular genes. Pioneer uses those markers to introduce the gene for anthracnose resistance into commercial corn seed.
"Conventional breeding is a very powerful tool, but ultimately with a trait like this, it's not powerful enough to move the trait into a wide variety of germplasm," said Enno Krebbers, a research director at the DuPont Experimental Station in Wilmington and a supervisor on the anthracnose research.
Hawk and UD's corn breeding program participate in a U.S. Department of Agriculture program called Germplasm Enhancement of Maize, an effort to diversify the genetic base of corn grown in the United States.
Hawk said the gene for anthracnose resistance isn't found in most North American corn seed. The UD-DuPont research effort demonstrates the importance of conserving and studying a diverse group of seeds and plants, he said.
Article by Andrew Eder
Excerpted from The News Journal
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