Yield10 Bioscience Announces Achievement of Proof-of-Concept Milestone for Producing PHA Bioplastic in Field Grown Camelina P...
January 19 2021 - 8:30AM
Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. (Nasdaq:YTEN), an agricultural bioscience
company, today announced successful field testing of prototype
lines of the oilseed Camelina sativa that have been programed to
produce PHA bioplastics directly in seed.
PHA are natural polymers, prevalent in nature and fully
biodegradable in the environment. Currently produced by
fermentation of engineered microbes, PHA polymers also have
applications in water treatment where they act as a zero-waste
solution to nitrate pollution and as animal feed ingredients.
Yield10 has a long history with and deep knowledge of PHAs and it
believes that direct production of PHA in seed as a co-product with
oil and protein meal has the potential to enable production of PHA
bioplastics on an agricultural scale at costs in line with
commodity vegetable oils to drive large-scale adoption in the
plastics markets. PHA bioplastics could ultimately be used to
manufacture a wide range of fully biodegradable consumer
products.
The prototype plants tested in these studies were programed with
microbial genes based on a recent patent filed for new
technology developed by Yield10 researchers to produce
Camelina seed containing high levels of PHA bioplastic suitable for
field production. Several Camelina lines were grown in small plots
at field test sites in the U.S. and Canada. Compared to control
plants, the engineered PHA Camelina lines emerged and matured later
but once established, exhibited good vigor, branching, flowering
and seed set. All engineered PHA Camelina lines tested produced PHA
in the seed. The levels of PHA produced in seed at the two
different locations were consistent and measured up to 6 percent
PHA of mature seed weight depending on the plant line tested,
demonstrating proof-of-concept for field production of PHA in
Camelina sativa using the new technology.
Based on these results, Yield10 has selected two PHA Camelina
lines for larger scale field testing in 2021, pending the issuance
of permits in the U.S. In addition to generating more data, Yield10
plans to determine the suitability of the lines for initial
commercial activities. Each PHA application area has different
price points and scale requirements, and will have different PHA
content requirements for commercial launch. Based on this, Yield10
believes that PHA content in the range of 5 to 20 percent of mature
seed weight in Camelina would address the range of target
applications. Yield10 plans to extract the PHA bioplastic from the
Camelina seed for product prototyping, sampling and business
development.
“It is truly exciting to reach this milestone in our effort to
produce PHA bioplastic in the seeds of field grown Camelina
plants,” said Kristi Snell, Ph.D., vice president of research and
chief science officer of Yield10 Bioscience. “Our team has
implemented several improvements to advance PHA producing Camelina
lines to this important stage of development. Insights from our
field tests as well as our expertise for increasing carbon flow in
Camelina from our GRAIN platform are expected to enable us to make
further improvements to increase yields of PHA per acre. Although
not essential for initial commercial launch, our long-term
technology goal is to increase the PHA content of seed to about 20
percent of the mature seed weight and combine that with advanced
higher yielding, herbicide tolerant varieties currently in
development to drive production costs as low as possible.”
“Our development of Camelina as a new platform crop to produce
proprietary products is aligned with global trends to a low carbon
economy. These include innovations in cash relay and cover crops
for growers to reduce the environmental impact of commodity
agriculture and the production of carbon negative products for
food, fuel and plastics,” said Oliver Peoples, Ph.D., president and
chief executive officer of Yield10 Bioscience. “Congratulations to
our science team for achieving this critical first step towards
commercial development of this technology.”
“We are executing our strategy to build strong cash flow to
support the commercialization of Camelina PHA bioplastics. Our near
term commercial efforts are focused on launching our Camelina
business to produce oil for renewable diesel and as a fish oil
supplement for aquaculture feed, and developing the business plan
for the recently obtained rights to the Camelina omega-3 (DHA+EPA)
replacement fish oil under our recent agreements with Rothamsted
Research. Based on its level of development, we believe the drop-in
fish oil replacement technology is currently closer to
commercialization and could provide some of the resources we will
need to develop PHA in Camelina,” said Dr. Peoples.
Evaluation of the results for additional traits tested in
Yield10’s 2020 field tests is currently ongoing and the Company
anticipates providing updates as data becomes available.
About Yield10 Bioscience
Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. is an agricultural bioscience company
developing crop innovations for sustainable global food security.
The Company uses its “Trait Factory” including the “GRAIN” big data
mining trait gene discovery tool as well as the Camelina oilseed
“Fast Field Testing” system to develop high value seed traits for
the agriculture and food industries. As a path toward
commercialization of novel traits, Yield10 is pursuing a partnering
approach with major agricultural companies to drive new traits into
development for canola, soybean, corn, and other commercial crops.
The Company is also developing improved Camelina varieties as a
platform crop for the production and commercialization of
nutritional oils, proteins, and PHA biomaterials. The Company’s
expertise in oilseed crops also extends into canola, where it is
currently field-testing novel yield traits to generate data to
drive additional licensing opportunities. Yield10 is headquartered
in Woburn, MA and has an Oilseeds Center of Excellence in
Saskatoon, Canada.
For more information about the company, please visit
www.yield10bio.com, or follow the Company on Twitter, Facebook and
LinkedIn.
(YTEN-G)
Safe Harbor for
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are
made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the
Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The forward-looking
statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future
performance. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press
release which are not strictly historical, including, without
limitation, whether direct production of PHA in seed as a
co-product with oil and protein meal has the potential to enable
production of PHA bioplastics on an agricultural scale at costs in
line with commodity vegetable oils to drive large-scale adoption in
the plastics markets, whether Yield10 will be able to extract PHA
bioplastic from the Camelina seed for product prototyping, sampling
and other business development activities; whether Yield10producing
PHA content in the range of 5 to 20 percent would be sufficient to
address a range of applications; whether Yield10 will be able to
make further improvements to increase yields of PHA per acre, to
increase the PHA content of seed to about 20 percent to drive
production costs as low as possible, and to develop a large-scale,
cost-effective, and sustainable Camelina production platform for
PHA bioplastic and other products; and whether Yield10’s drop-in
fish oil replacement will be commercialized and will be able to
build strong cash flow to support commercialization of Camelina PHA
products, constitute forward-looking statements.
Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks
and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those anticipated, including the risks and
uncertainties detailed in Yield10 Bioscience's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. Yield10 assumes no obligation
to update any forward-looking information contained in this press
release or with respect to the matters described herein.
Contacts: Yield10 Bioscience:Lynne H. Brum,
(617) 682-4693, LBrum@yield10bio.com
Investor Relations: Bret Shapiro, (561) 479-8566,
brets@coreir.comManaging Director, CORE IR
Media Inquiries: Eric Fischgrund, eric@fischtankpr.com FischTank
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