Sponsored story, written by Farming Future Food.
Can artificial intelligence help come up with corn varieties resistant to the US’s most damaging diseases? A collaboration between biotech company Phytoform and agritech giant Corteva aims to find out.
The project will apply Phytoform’s CRE.AI.TIVE™ AI technology and gene editing to boost natural disease resistance in what is the US’s most widely grown crop.
“We’re thrilled to have signed this agreement with Corteva,” said Dr. Will Pelton, chief executive of Phytoform, based at the Rothamsted Research site in the UK.
“By accelerating what nature can achieve through our shared technologies, we’re taking steps to make global food production more sustainable and secure for one of the world’s most important crops.”
Two native genes are key to disease resistance in corn, and Phytoform will use CRE.AI.TIVE™ to search through millions of potential variations in DNA control regions, selecting those that demonstrate activity in plant cells. The collaboration will fit within Genlytix™, Corteva’s system integrating advanced gene editing capabilities, data analytics and strategic partnerships.
“We’re excited to leverage the contributions of Phytoform’s CRE.AI.TIVE™ AI platform with our industry leading Genlytix™ ecosystem to continue to grow Corteva’s position as a leader in developing critical solutions for US farmers,” said Tom Greene, senior director at Corteva and global leader of Corteva Catalyst.
The team-up ties into Phytoform’s broader push to enable plant breeders to target resilience traits with greater speed and accuracy, without introducing foreign genes, and follows the launch of its AI platform in late 2024.
“This work shows how AI and biology can come together to build a more climate-resilient food system,” Dr. Nicolas Kral, Phytoform chief technology officer and co-founder added. “We’re not just fixing plants, we’re future-proofing agriculture.”
