Yield10 Bioscience Reports that Proprietary Varieties of Winter Camelina Show Tolerance to Commonly Used Herbicides in First Field Tests
01 March 2024 - 12:31AM
Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. (Nasdaq:YTEN) (“Yield10” or the
“Company”), an agricultural bioscience company, today reported that
its proprietary varieties of winter Camelina sativa (“Camelina”) in
development responded as expected to herbicides in the first field
tests conducted in the United States. Yield10 tested winter
Camelina engineered with tolerance to glufosinate (“HT”), an
herbicide widely used to manage weeds and protect yields in crop
rotations in North America, as well as Camelina with stacked
glufosinate and Group 2 tolerance (“Stacked HT”), to provide
tolerance to Group 2 herbicide residues in soil persisting from use
on prior crops. Yield10 believes that HT and Stacked HT traits in
Camelina are critical to enabling grower adoption of the crop and
planting on large acreage to produce feedstocks for biofuel and
omega-3 oil for the aquafeed and nutrition markets. Yield10 has
previously reported herbicide tolerance in spring Camelina, where
the Company has selected lead and back-up commercial-quality lines
for development.
In the fall of 2023, Yield10 researchers initiated the first
field tests of candidate winter Camelina deployed with stacked HT
traits intended to provide the plants with tolerance to the
application of glufosinate, an over-the-top broadleaf herbicide, as
well as tolerance to soil residues of Group 2 herbicides,
specifically including tolerance to both imidazolinones (“IMI”) and
sulfonylureas (“SU”). Group 2 herbicides are commonly used to
manage weeds in cereal and other crop rotations and can persist in
the soil for months following use. Prior to planting, the test
fields were pretreated with Group 2 herbicides (two weeks prior to
planting) to generate plots with soil residues of either IMI
or SU herbicides. The winter stacked HT Camelina and control
Camelina without HT were subsequently planted. Preliminary interim
results of these field tests indicated that Yield10’s stacked HT
winter Camelina performed well on the field plots pre-treated with
Group 2 herbicides. By comparison, significant injury was observed
to control winter Camelina grown on soil containing IMI or SU
residues. In the spring of 2024, these winter field
plots will be sprayed with glufosinate for broad leaf weed
control.
Yield10 researchers also initiated in the fall of 2023 the first
field tests of candidate winter Camelina lines deployed with the
trait that provides tolerance to the spray application of
glufosinate. The winter Camelina was planted, and the field plots
were subsequently sprayed with glufosinate in accordance with the
field trial design. Winter Camelina engineered with glufosinate
tolerance remained healthy, while field plots of Camelina without
the herbicide tolerance trait did not survive the spray.
Additional spraying of glufosinate on the winter HT Camelina is
planned in the spring of 2024.
Yield10 expects to harvest the winter field test plantings in
the summer of 2024 and conduct an evaluation of its seed yield, oil
content, herbicide tolerance and overall agronomy.
“Our focus on the development of herbicide tolerant and stacked
herbicide tolerant Camelina is intended to provide significant
differentiation of our elite Camelina varieties from conventional
varieties while potentially enabling growers to seamlessly
integrate Camelina production into their crop rotations on a
large-scale,” said Kristi Snell, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer of
Yield10 Bioscience. “Stacked HT technology is particularly
important for planting winter Camelina in the fall after harvest of
the previous crop. The encouraging results from the first field
testing of our winter HT and Stacked HT Camelina varieties marks
another milestone in our Camelina program and demonstrates the
leadership position we have established deploying new traits into
Camelina to potentially drive the value of the crop.”
Regulatory status
Yield10 is a leader in the development of elite Camelina,
including herbicide tolerant varieties. In November of 2023,
USDA-APHIS determined that Yield10’s glufosinate tolerant Camelina
as well as its stacked herbicide tolerant Camelina may be planted
and bred in the United States in response to two Requests for
Regulatory Status Review packages submitted by Yield10. An
application to add Camelina to a glufosinate label is pending with
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
About Yield10 Bioscience
Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. ("Yield10" or the "Company") is an
agricultural bioscience company that is leveraging advanced
genetics to develop the oilseed Camelina sativa ("Camelina") as a
platform crop for large-scale production of sustainable seed
products. These seed products include feedstock oils for renewable
diesel and sustainable aviation biofuels; omega-3 (EPA and DHA+EPA)
oils for pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and aquafeed applications;
and, in the future, PHA biomaterials for use as biodegradable
bioplastics. Subject to the availability of sufficient financial
resources to continue operations, our commercial plan is based on
establishing a grain contracting business leveraging our
proprietary elite Camelina seed varieties, focusing on the growing
demand for low-carbon intensity feedstock oil for biofuels and
omega-3 oils for nutritional applications. Yield10 is headquartered
in Woburn, MA and has a Canadian subsidiary, Yield10 Oilseeds Inc.,
located in Saskatoon, Canada.
For more information about the Company, please visit
www.yield10bio.com, or follow the Company on X (formerly
Twitter), Facebook and LinkedIn.
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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, expectations related to research, development and
harvesting of Camelina, the expected path to regulatory approvals,
the potential for herbicide tolerance in Camelina to support grower
adoption and large-scale production, the potential for Camelina to
provide sustainable means to produce biofuels and omega-3 oils, and
expectations regarding the integration of Camelina with current
weed control and crop rotation practices of major
crops, 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, but not limited to, the fact
that interim results of field tests may not necessarily be
indicative of later results, the Company’s ability to secure
adequate funding in the near term to continue operations and to
remain listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, as to which no assurance
can be given, as well as 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.
Contact:
Yield10 Bioscience:Lynne H. Brum, (617) 682-4693,
LBrum@yield10bio.com
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