Two Companies Sequence Rice Genome

Z U R I C H, Switzerland, Jan. 26, 2001 -- Syngenta International AGannounced today that it and collaborative partner MyriadGenetics Inc. have mapped the rice genome, an advancementSyngenta claims will make crops more resistant to pests and disease.

It is "an immensely exciting enterprise with hugeimplications," David Evans, head of Syngenta research andtechnology, told journalists in a conference call.

He said the findings were significant not only for rice, butalso for other important crops.

"We can make them more abundant, change the constitution tomake them more nutritious, [and get] higher yields," Evans said,adding the advance also would have benefits for the foodprocessing industry.

It will also lead to new ways to protect crops from pestsand diseases, he said.

Five-Year Wait

Evans told journalists that it will be five years before thefirst revenues from new seeds that will be produced as a resultof the new rice genome developments.

A genome contains the basic information that makes up livingorganisms encoded in chromosomes made up of double-strandedchains of DNA. The rice genome was discovered after tests atTorrey Mesa Research Institute in California.

Syngenta spokesman Juerg Eberle said earlier that it is thefirst time a genome has been mapped for a commercial food crop.The rice genome is the second-largest genome sequenced, afterthe human genome, he said.

"Because of the similarity between different cereal cropplants, the information derived from rice will contribute to thestudy of other important cereals such as wheat [and] corn, andlead to their future improvement," Eberle said.

The discovery will not have an immediate impact onSyngenta's business. But Eberle said the news confirmed thatSyngenta was on the right track with its focus on research.

Eric Bernhardt, a fund manager at Swiss-based Clariden Bank,said the rice genome development was also good news forSyngenta's partner, Myriad. Clariden's Biotech Equity Fund has astake in Myriad.

Myriad, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, began in 1991 as astart-up with venture capital, and discovered gene BRCA1, whichcauses breast cancer, in 1994.

Attractive Work for Researchers

"It shows the value of their [Myriad's] underlyingtechnology platform. It just shows that maybe they don't havethe same publicity as other genomics companies, but that doesn'tmean they are not doing interesting work," Bernhardt said.

U.S. scientist Craig Venter, head of Celera Genomics, madehistory last year by completing a program to sequence thehuman genome before a government group did so.

Rice is one of the key food crops attracting research fromgenetic scientists involved in the costly process of mappinggenomes.

Syngenta's Eberle said it will use the rice genomics datafor new commercial applications in agribusiness. Informationwill also be made available to the academic community, he said.

He said subsistence farmers in developing countries who growcrops for their own use would receive the information free. Inaddition, Syngenta will make the information available to theInternational Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.