FRANKFURT, Germany (Reuters) – Bayer, the world’s largest supplier of genetically modified canola, has mapped out the entire genetic code of the oilseed plant in a bid to speed development of new varieties.
“This will allow us to speed up our current research and breeding programs,” the head of Bayer’s oilseed research program, Bart Lambert, said in a statement Oct. 9.
Academic researchers in China and Australia, as well as Dutch Biotech firm Keygene, contributed to the project, Bayer added.
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Canola is used for food oil and it is a common feedstock for biofuel in Europe.
Bayer made 250 million euros ($388 million Cdn) in sales from modified canola and from pesticides for canola farmers last year, about 15 percent of the global market.
Bayer is developing new varieties through both conventional breeding aided by modern genetic analysis and by directly manipulating the plant’s genes.
Canola is the latest in a string of agricultural plants mapped.
Myriad and Syngenta decoded rice in 2001. Academic researchers in the United States are close to mapping out the corn genome. French scientists last year said they had found a way to sequence the entire genetic code of wheat, seen as particularly complex.
