Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Switchgrass is a perennial grass native to the prairies of North America. It has been identified by the U.S. Department of Energy as the primary perennial plant species for development as a dedicated cellulosic energy crop. It is estimated that switchgrass and other plant species grown in the U.S. have the potential to produce over 100 billion gallons of biofuels per year while still allowing food, animal feed and export demands for other crops, including corn, to be met. Moreover, switchgrass has the potential to produce cellulose for biofuels such as ethanol and butanol on lands incapable of supporting traditional food crops.

The large-scale Ceres switchgrass sequencing effort has utilized libraries of full-length cDNAs rather than ESTs (partial genes), in order to capture information not only on complete gene sequences and encoded proteins but also on genetic variation associated with these genes that enables targeted, marker-assisted breeding programs for switchgrass improvement. The generation of large numbers of full-length cDNA sequences, which are notably absent from most high-throughput gene sequencing programs because of technical difficulties, represents an important component of Ceres` intellectual property strategy. To date, Ceres has filed patent applications covering over 70,000 full-length plant genes from Arabidopsis, corn, soybean, wheat and cotton, amongst others.

"These switchgrass sequences are being utilized in our integrated genomics platforms and high-throughput product development pipeline," said Dr. Richard Hamilton, Chief Executive Officer of Ceres. "Using the sequences of these genes as well as the physical clones of our proprietary collection of full- length plant genes enhances our leading position in dedicated energy crop genomics and will accelerate breeding and commercialization of elite switchgrass varieties. These genes may also be useful in improvement programs of other crops such as corn."

The switchgrass sequencing project is part of an agreement with the USDA Western Regional Research Center and of the recently announced collaboration with The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Inc. for the development and commercialization of new, advanced biomass crops for biofuels production.

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