b"theres a new focus on improving plants so that they can addSarah Foster, president of 20/20 Seed Labs and AgGene board value to farmers too, he says. member, has found herself learning a lot about the molecular From there the idea of AgGene was born. Skori won a Lifeworld of gene editing from Skori. Science Innovation Fellowship through Innovate Calgary, givingBy using this MAD7 gene editing technology it allows them to him a $200,000 grant to start up the company. And while heinsert what they want, so if they want to increase protein, they may not be a traditional plant breeder, he is still working tocan do it very quickly, Foster says in a phone interview. Gene improve crops across the Canadian Prairies by boosting theirediting is very, very new, and its really exciting.protein content. The plant disease tester was introduced to Skori four years ago through the Advancing Ag mentorship program and has New Technology been supportive of his work ever since.AgGene was founded in December 2020 and since then it hasThe technology is still in its infancy, Skori explains. AgGene been a whirlwind. Skori and his coworkers have been doingneeds to evaluate it in greenhouse and field trials. He expects research and development, filing provisional patents andover the next two years AgGene will make significant forging partnerships in the agriculture industry. progress on bringing crops with their traits in them closer to AgGene uses favourable plant breeding tools to increasecommercialization. protein content. They have focused on using MAD7 geneThe great thing about the technology is it can go into any editing to improve traits in plants, particularly protein content. variety. The group of genes that we work with are very similar The protein boosting started with canola. While Skori wasacross different crops. So I think one of the appealing things is studying at the U of C he developed with colleagues a GMOwe could integrate it into multiple varieties, multiple crops and canola where the protein content was increased by 20 to 25see promising results, he says.per cent compared to the non-transgenic parents. Since then.AgGene is currently working to form relationships with AgGene has moved away from the GMO approach and are nowpea and soybean companies to put their protein boosting focused on gene editing. technology into germplasms. AgGene plans to partner with Weve done preliminary evaluations, and we believe that theother companies in order to get their technology on the market technology can be translated to soybean and in different pulsefaster, instead of breeding their own varieties which would take crops. Right now, our primary focus is actually on soybean andmore than a decade to do.pea at the current moment. Canola is kind of number three inHes taking some taken huge steps. And I think its absolutely the chain, he says. at the right time. Hes so innovative, and its just an exciting time for him, and I think its absolutely fantastic, Foster says.The Protein FutureWith pulse processing facilities having been built recently across Western Canada, interest in plant protein is growing. Skori feels were just scratching the surface with plant protein and the industry will explode in the next five to 10 years.If we can really replicate a high level of protein increase in a number of different crops that are important to processing, at the end of the day, the protein processors themselves will be able to capitalize on this, he explains.Skori wants to keep the cost of protein low while also increasing the amount of it in plants. More people are trying to add protein into their diets and keeping the cost low is important from a consumer standpoint. Its not just about protein for a health bar or drink, boosting protein for food and animal feed is vital in developing countries. Theres also a keen interest for protein in our diets and health products in first world countries too, Foster says.The opportunities to increase protein content doesnt stop at peas and soybeans though, Skori sees possibilities for high protein leafy greens. He also thinks they can increase plant protein content for livestock feed.There so many there's so many opportunities and different applications. So were being really open minded at this point, he explains. Ashley Robinson22seed.ab.ca"