68 I EUROPEAN SEED I EUROPEAN-SEED.COM INDUSTRY NEWS TAILORED TO SEED PROFESSIONALS, INDUSTRY NEWS DELIVERS THE PEOPLE, RESEARCH, BUSINESS AND PRODUCT NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW. SUBMISSIONS ARE WELCOME. EMAIL US AT NEWS@ISSUESINK.COM. INDUSTRY NEWS Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. announced it has signed a non-exclusive research license agreement jointly with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Pioneer, part of Corteva Agriscience, for the use of CRISPR-Cas9 genome-edit- ing technology for crops. The joint license covers intellectual property consisting of approximately 48 patents and patent applications on CRISPR-Cas9 technol- ogy controlled by the Broad Institute and Pioneer. Under the agreement, Yield10 has the option to renew the license on an annual basis and the right to convert the research license to a commercial license in the future, subject to customary condi- tions as specified in the agreement. In Canada, researchers have devel- oped two new lines of spring triticale, advancing the crop’s yield and digestibil- ity. The lines, T256 and T257, also have lower risks of ergot than some varieties currently on the market, said Mazen Aljarrah, a plant breeder with Alberta Agriculture, during a field day in July at the Field Crop Development Centre in Lacombe. In particular, he said T256, a forage-type line, is more digestible because it has reduced awns, is shorter, and has lower lignin content. PEOPLE NEWS Shefali Mehta has been tapped as the new executive director of the Soil Health Partnership, a long-term data project that measures and quantifies the impact of farm management practices known to promote healthy soils. BUSINESS NEWS PGG Wrightson Ltd and DLF Seeds A/S have reached an agreement for DLF to acquire PGG Wrightson Seeds. The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals. PPG Wrightson Seeds is inter- national market leader in the Southern Hemisphere within forage and turf seeds, with activities in New Zealand, Australia, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil. Sakata Seed America announced the sale of its onion seed breeding program to Zaad Holdings Limited (‘Zaad’), a subsidiary of Zeder, effective July 27. The acquirer, Zaad, is a vertically inte- grated agriculture company headquar- tered in Cape Town, South Africa. The company has strong R&D, production and distribution systems established in continental Africa, Europe and the U.S. Dr. Sean Fort, the program’s breeder for over 18 years, will continue onion breed- ing efforts for Zaad. PRODUCT NEWS Corteva Agriscience, Agriculture Division of DowDuPont and Agriculture Victoria Services Pty Ltd. (AVS), the commercial arm of Agriculture Victoria, announced a license agreement for a novel source of blackleg resistance in canola (Brassica napus) developed by AVS using Optimum Haploid Value (OHV) technology. The OHV technology was developed under the long-standing and productive strategic collaboration between AVS and Corteva Agriscience. Anthracnose stalk rot is a fungal dis- ease of corn that can cause lodging and completely destroy a crop. It is ranked among the top three diseases that cause yield losses in corn each year. Lisa Vaillancourt, a University of Kentucky (UK) plant pathologist, has studied this disease for several years and is working toward a management solution. Recently, Vaillancourt received a $1.25 million grant from the Plant Biotic Interactions Program, a joint venture between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation. The goal of the grant is to further examine an anthracnose mutant produced in her lab that is unable to cause the stalk rot disease in corn plants. Tillerman Seeds LLC announced it has completed its second acquisition. Greenville, Michigan-based Tillerman Seeds said it acquired the assets and real estate of Legacy Seeds, Inc., a Scandinavia, Wisconsin-based producer of alfalfa, corn, wheat and soybean seeds, as well as cover crops. Legacy also has seed operations in Nampa, Idaho. A new web-based tool that provides agri- cultural producers with access to weekly historical and contemporaneous corn and soybean basis data for local market regions in the eastern corn belt was just announced by Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture. The Crop Basis Tool, available on the center’s home page as well as the Managing Farm Risk website, is a col- laboration between the North Central Extension Risk Management Education Center and the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture.