Saskatoon has added a new firm to its biotech roster that claims it can revolutionize the way producers farm.
SynGene Biotek Inc. is a Victoria-based company that has made waves in agricultural biotech circles with its patented Protectin technology.
The company augments plant genes with small disease-resistant proteins called peptides, which provide resistance to microbial diseases that can affect crops.
The peptides are basically antibiotics for plants, said SynGene founder and president Santosh Misra. But unlike other biotech applications that target one specific disease or trait, the Protectin technology acts like a generic vaccine.
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“Nobody has been able to show broad spectrum disease resistance using a single gene and I think that’s the unique aspect of this technology,” said Misra, who was in Saskatoon last week to open the company’s new laboratory at the National Research Council’s Plant Biotechnology Institute.
“If you can control most of the major diseases, that’s a huge benefit,” she said.
This isn’t pie-in-the-sky science. SynGene has already developed disease-resistant tobacco and potato plants using peptides.
The company is talking with commercial partners to sponsor field testing of its biotech potato, which has demonstrated resistance to late blight, pink rot and soft rot and has shown superior shelf life.
“The potatoes can stay in storage for 18 months and they’re disease-free, whereas normally potatoes will start rotting and showing signs of decay,” Misra said.
The variety has to go through the registration process before it will be commercially available, but it has already generated a lot of attention. The company received calls from around the world after its laboratory and greenhouse trial results were published in Nature Biotechnology, an international scientific magazine.
Success with the biotech potato prompted SynGene to explore introducing peptides into wheat and canola plants, which is what the Saskatoon lab will focus on. One scientist has been hired and additional staff will be added in the coming year. Ag-West Biotech Inc. provided $200,000 to help bring the firm to the city.
Misra said they are already working on transforming a canola plant to resist microbial diseases such as stem rot and black leg. An agreement is also in place to work with Agriculture Canada on using the Protectin technology to create a strain of wheat resistant to fusarium head blight.
“I think there is quite a bit of interest in developing that,” said Misra, who is a plant molecular biologist.
She realizes GM wheat and GM canola have been the subjects of an intense debate surrounding food safety, but she said SynGene products wouldn’t require seed treatments or sprays to control microbial diseases such as bacteria, fungi and viruses.
“The benefits outweigh the concerns that consumers have.”
Avoiding carcinogens and microtoxins in foods has a positive impact on human and animal health, she added.
The technology should also benefit farmers, who can reduce input costs while improving crop yields. And because the peptides are stable and long-lasting, farmers can store their crops without risk of deterioration. The only thing it won’t do is protect against insects.
Misra estimates it will be three to five years before SynGene develops a workable wheat or canola variety containing the patented Protectin technology.
She also wants to develop canola plants that can be fed to livestock to control disease outbreaks and pharmaceutical plants that produce peptide-based antibiotics for humans.
