b'mercial promise, says Mike DeCamp, CEO of CoverCress Inc.glucosinolate and improved fatty acid composition) stacked (formerly known as Arvegenix), a company that is now com- together, Marks says.mercializing the plant as domesticated pennycress under theThese university and commercial scientists are not yet brand name CoverCress. finished with pennycress. They will continue genetic improve-Meanwhile, University of Minnesota researchers Davidment and especially develop traits for various growing Marks, Kevin Dorn and Ratan Chopra at worked on map- environments. Sedbrook for example, is leading a multi-ping the pennycress genome and identifying mutants withinstitutional Department of Energy project called Integrated improved traits.Pennycress Resilience Project (IPREP) to understand penny-Our approach has been to use EMS-based chemicalcress traits related to drought, heat, cold and water-logging mutagenesis to create variation, Marks says. From thistolerance. He notes that theres a lot of natural variation in source, we identified key gene mutations that would have nottemperature tolerance and other traits in the 800 accessions necessarily been on the radar for gene editing.collected by citizen scientists from around the world for the At the same time, Ph.D. candidates Michaela McGinn, MaliIPREP project, which extends through 2025.Esfahanian and Brice Jarvis in Sedbrooks lab and Tim Ulmasov at CoverCress Inc. used induced mutation, natural variation and gene edits to further move pennycress from weed to crop. (McGinn and Chopra later joined CoverCress Inc.)Two of the three main editsreduced fiber through a seed coat color change and reduced levels of a glucosinolate called sinigrin in the seedare jointly owned by CoverCress Inc., the University of Minnesota and Illinois State. The edit that reduces erucic acid is jointly owned by Illinois State and University of Minnesota, and licenced to CoverCress Inc. One Gene, Much ChangeOf all the important gene edits to pennycress as its moved from weed to crop, one stands apart. The change in seed coat color from black to gold was not only critical for reduc-ing fiber, but also instrumental in ensuring CoverCress would become a true winter rotational crop. The crop has to establish well in the fall, grow well, flowerCloseup of pennycress flowering.early and be ready to harvest by about the end of May, Phippen explains. The gold seed coat is much thinner, so those seeds germinate a lot faster, which gets the standThe Past Five Yearsestablished faster, and so on. A thinner seed coat also meansIn addition to the patents for the gene edits, in 2019 there stray seeds rot fairly fast after harvest instead of persistingwas another formalization of the collaborative efforts that for years like the black seed-coated varieties do, like mosthas been critical for commercializing the crop. That year, weed seed does. a public-private partnership agreement was made among But for a good yield of this crop, winter hardinessthethe USDA, the universities of Minnesota, Illinois State and ability to withstand repeated freeze-thaw cycleswas alsoWestern Illinois and CoverCress Inc. critical to achieve, as was breeding for a thicker stem to pre- Over the past five years, Phippen managed the partner-vent lodging. Phippen says he and the others have achievedship under a USDA-NIFA project to commercialize penny-great progress with those aspects and more.cress named the Integrated Pennycress Research Enabling We now have all the key agronomic and end-use traitsFarm and Energy Resilience (IPREFER). He coordinated (e.g. early maturity, reduced pod shatter, reduced seedfunding among all involved.JUNE 2024SEEDWORLD.COM /33'