STTR Phase I: Transgenic and Cisgenic Targeted Insertion in Corn

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is the reduced cost and time required to generate improved corn plants for agricultural use. When corn plants are challenged in an agricultural field (from a new pest for example), it currently takes 16 years and $115M to generate improved lines that meet the challenge. This project aims to reduce this time and cost to quickly generate improved corn lines that meet new agricultural challenges. Commercial potential exists to speed the product pipeline through the integration of the technology in this proposal into existing product development pipelines, as well as establishing an independent rapid production pipeline. Corn is the most profitable row crop in the United States and therefore represents the greatest commercial potential. This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project aims to integrate cutting-edge genome engineering technology into the corn improvement pipeline. Based on both published and proprietary data, this technology was previously established in a model plant and then tested in soybean and other crops. This project specially aims to translate this technology into corn, demonstrating a proof-of-principle and refining the technology’s use in a corn product development pipeline. This proposal will generate the biological machinery needed for custom genome engineering in corn, transform corn plants, and analyze the resulting plants. The anticipated technical result is rapid and targeted genome engineering in corn plants. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.