Cibus Announces Major Breakthrough in Wheat Regeneration from Single Cells
- Cibus successfully regenerates plants from single cells in a wheat cultivar, a significant achievement for the company and the seed industry.
- Acceleration of trait development in wheat, a major crop for global food security.
- Demonstration of Cibus' success in developing scalable high throughput breeding platforms for major crops.
- None.
Insights
The recent achievement by Cibus in successfully regenerating wheat from single cells is a significant advancement in agricultural biotechnology. This process, which is a part of Cibus' High Throughput Breeding or 'Trait Machine™ System,' offers a new method for rapidly introducing traits into wheat varieties. This could lead to the development of wheat strains that are more resistant to disease, have higher yields, or are better adapted to adverse environmental conditions.
The ability to regenerate plants from single cells is particularly important in crops like wheat, which has a very large and complex genome. The breakthrough indicates that the Trait Machine™ System can handle such complexity, which is promising for the application of the technology to other major crops. By accelerating trait development, Cibus is likely to help seed companies and farmers address some of the pressing challenges in wheat production, such as the need for sustainable farming practices and adaptation to climate change.
This development could have a ripple effect on the seed industry by potentially reducing the time and cost associated with breeding new wheat varieties. As the technology becomes operational for wheat, it may attract partnerships with seed companies looking to integrate these advancements into their breeding programs, thereby influencing the competitive landscape of the agricultural sector.
The announcement by Cibus has the potential to impact the seed industry and agricultural markets significantly. Wheat is a staple crop with a vast global market and any advancement that promises to increase productivity or quality traits is likely to be closely watched by investors and industry stakeholders. The early achievement of this milestone, a year ahead of schedule, could be a strong signal of the company's operational efficiency and innovation capabilities, which may reflect positively on investor sentiment and Cibus' stock valuation.
Moreover, the integration of this technology into existing seed company programs could lead to new revenue streams for Cibus through licensing deals and partnerships. This would not only bolster Cibus' financial position but could also serve as a catalyst for further research and development in the sector. Investors should monitor the adoption rate of the Trait Machine™ System by seed companies and the subsequent market response to new wheat varieties developed using this technology.
Given the importance of wheat in global food security, advancements in breeding technology are also likely to draw attention from government entities and international organizations, which may lead to regulatory changes or funding opportunities that could benefit Cibus and the broader industry.
The success of Cibus in advancing wheat regeneration technology is a notable development from a financial perspective. The ability to enhance wheat traits efficiently could translate into significant cost savings for seed companies and, in turn, for farmers. This efficiency gain could drive down the overall cost of wheat production, potentially impacting commodity prices and profit margins across the supply chain.
From an investment standpoint, Cibus' breakthrough demonstrates the company's potential for growth and innovation within the agricultural technology sector. The stock market typically rewards companies that contribute to efficiency and sustainability in critical industries and Cibus' progress in developing scalable high throughput breeding platforms could position the company as a leader in this space.
Investors should consider the long-term implications of this technology's scalability. If Cibus successfully develops single cell models for the remaining major crops, it could significantly diversify its portfolio and solidify its market position. This could lead to greater market share and a stronger competitive edge, which are key factors in evaluating a company's long-term growth potential and stock performance.
- Breakthrough believed to represent the world’s first successful regeneration of a wheat plant from single cells – a major breakthrough for Cibus and for the seed industry.
- Provides another single cell regeneration system to make Cibus’ High Throughput Breeding Process (the “Trait Machine™ System”) operational for a key cereal crop integral to food security globally.
- Wheat breakthrough demonstrates the Company’s continued success in developing scalable high throughput breeding platforms that can operate as extensions of seed company breeding programs.
- This is the third crop toward Cibus’ goal to develop single cell models for the five major crops (canola, rice, wheat, soybean and corn) for the benefit of seed companies and farmers – Cibus already has High Throughput Breeding systems in two crops (canola and rice) and a five-trait pipeline across these two crops.
SAN DIEGO, Jan. 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cibus, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBUS), a leading agricultural technology company that develops and licenses plant traits to seed companies, today announced that the Company has successfully regenerated plants from single cells in a wheat cultivar. This is a major breakthrough for Cibus as well as for the industry.
“In this tour de force, I am proud of our team’s persistence, the result of which is the opening of a scalable gene editing process in wheat, which is a major global crop and an important food staple,” said Greg Gocal, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Cibus.
“I am so impressed with our entire team, which was able to achieve this important milestone a year ahead of schedule, opening up the potential to accelerate trait development in one of the world’s most cultivated crops,” added Noel Sauer, Senior Vice President, Research and Development. “Further, by working with seed company customers, this achievement will enable prototyping productivity and quality traits to address this crop’s key challenges potentially providing farmers with new tools to manage their farm and improve their profitability.”
Wheat is one of the world’s most cultivated crops, and one of the major crops grown in North and South America. It is a staple in many diets and is responsible for a fifth of people’s caloric intake, making it one of the world’s most important crops. Wheat flour is consumed in breads, pasta, cookies, crackers, confections, among other things.
Initially sequenced a mere five years ago, wheat genomes are some of the largest of all crops, having more than 16 billion letters (compared to rice with about one billion letters that was sequenced in 2002 and five times larger than the human genome). They are also very complex with durum wheat comprising the fusion of two genomes and bread wheat from the fusion of three.
Given this breakthrough, Cibus intends to develop a family of traits to address the most significant challenges faced by farmers globally for wheat, focusing initially on disease resistance and nitrogen use efficiency. Nitrogen use efficiency is a need in many crops, but particularly for wheat with its enormous, cultivated acreage. A nitrogen use efficiency trait would have the potential to materially reduce the carbon footprint of the crop while offering better yield with similar fertilization. Fungal diseases cause a significant economic impact in wheat production with cereals representing the largest fungicide market. Development of disease resistance traits in wheat offer the promise of protecting yield potential while reducing fungicide use. We are encouraged that we will be able to address the major diseases in wheat. Finally, this platform enables the development of improved wheat quality traits, potentially reducing or eliminating allergens such as gluten and even further improvement of the Company’s high fiber wheat.
“This breakthrough represents a significant milestone for our business. Our long-term goal is to develop a scalable high-speed breeding production system that can develop and produce traits for any seed company servicing any of the five major crops (canola, rice, wheat, soybean, and corn),” said Rory Riggs, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Cibus.
About the Cibus RTDS®-based High Throughput Breeding System
A key element of Cibus’ technology breakthrough is its high Throughput Breeding Process (referred to as the Trait Machine™ System). The Trait Machine process is a crop specific application of Cibus’ patented Rapid Trait Development System™ (RTDS). The proprietary technologies in RTDS integrate crop specific cell biology platforms with a series of gene editing technologies to enable a system of end-to-end crop specific precision breeding. It is the core technology platform for Cibus’ Trait Machine: the first standardized end-to-end semi-automated crop specific gene editing system that directly edits a seed company’s elite germplasm. Each Trait Machine process requires a crop specific cell biology platform that enables Cibus to edit a single cell from a customers’ elite germplasm and grow that edited cell into a plant with the Cibus edits. Cibus has Trait Machine platforms developed for canola and rice and has already begun transferring back to customers their elite germplasm with Cibus edits.
The traits from Cibus’ RTDS-based High Throughput Breeding System are indistinguishable from traits developed using conventional breeding or from nature. Under the European Commission current proposals, it is expected that products from Cibus’ RTDS gene editing platform such as its pod shatter resistance trait and Sclerotinia resistance traits for Winter Oilseed Rape would be considered ‘Conventional-like'.
Cibus believes that RTDS and the Trait Machine process represent the technological breakthrough in plant breeding that is the ultimate promise of plant gene editing: High Throughput Gene Editing Systems operating as an extension of seed company breeding programs.
About Cibus
Cibus is a leader in gene edited productivity traits that address critical productivity and sustainability challenges for farmers such as diseases and pests which the United Nations estimates cost the global economy approximately
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included herein, including statements regarding Cibus’ operational and financial performance, Cibus’ strategy, future operations, prospects and plans, including the anticipated regulatory environment are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “intend”, “expect,” “plan,” “scheduled,” “could,” “would” and “will,” or the negative of these and similar expressions.
These forward-looking statements are based on the current expectations and assumptions of Cibus’ management about future events, which are based on currently available information. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and beyond the control of Cibus. Cibus’ actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements could be materially different than those expressed, implied, or anticipated by forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including, but not limited to: changes in expected or existing competition; challenges to Cibus’ intellectual property protection and unexpected costs associated with defending intellectual property rights; increased or unanticipated time and resources required for Cibus’ platform or trait product development efforts; Cibus’ reliance on third parties in connection with its development activities; challenges associated with Cibus’ ability to effectively license its productivity traits and sustainable ingredient products; the risk that farmers do not recognize the value in germplasm containing Cibus’ traits or that farmers and processors fail to work effectively with crops containing Cibus’ traits; challenges that arise in respect of Cibus’ production of high-quality plants and seeds cost effectively on a large scale; Cibus’ need for additional funding to finance its activities and challenges in obtaining additional capital on acceptable terms, or at all; Cibus’ dependence on distributions from Cibus Global, LLC to pay taxes and cover its corporate and overhead expenses; regulatory developments that disfavor or impose significant burdens on gene-editing processes or products; Cibus’ ability to achieve commercial success; commodity prices and other market risks facing the agricultural sector; technological developments that could render Cibus’ technologies obsolete; changes in macroeconomic and market conditions, including inflation, supply chain constraints, and rising interest rates; dislocations in the capital markets and challenges in accessing liquidity and the impact of such liquidity challenges on Cibus’ ability to execute on its business plan; the Company's assessment of the period of time through which its financial resources will be adequate to support operations; and other important factors discussed in “Risk Factors of Cibus, Inc.” filed as Exhibit 99.3 with Cibus’ Current Report on Form 8-K, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on June 1, 2023, as updated by the supplemental risk factors included in the Company's Current Reports on Form 8-K filed on October 18, 2023 and December 12, 2023, each as may be updated by any additional “Risk Factors” identified in Cibus’ subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K filed with the SEC. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties occur, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results and plans could differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. Cibus’ assessment of the period of time through which its financial resources will be adequate to support its operations is a forward-looking statement and involves such risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, the Company could use its available capital resources sooner than it currently expects.
In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent Cibus’ views as of the date hereof. Cibus specifically disclaims any obligation to update such forward-looking statements in the future, except as required under applicable law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Cibus’ views as of any date subsequent to the date hereof.
Cibus Contacts:
Investor Relations
Karen Troeber
ktroeber@cibus.com
858-450-2636
Jeff Sonnek – ICR
jeff.sonnek@icrinc.com
Media Relations
Colin Sanford
colin@bioscribe.com
203-918-4347
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