On the Street -- MSU Licenses Plant Oil Enhancement Technology
September 25/East Lansing, Mich./US Fed News -- Technology that could enhance plants' seed oil content for food and animal feed applications has been licensed to BASF Plant Science under an exclusive commercial agreement with Michigan State University.
Following a long-term collaboration, a plant gene that regulates oil accumulation in plant seed was licensed to BASF Plant Science by MSU Technologies, Michigan State's technology transfer office. The gene is a transcription factor that produces a protein, dubbed Wrinkled1, which was isolated in the laboratory of professor of biochemistry and molecular biology Christoph Benning. It is being licensed by the plant biotechnology company for further development of enhanced soybean and canola varieties.