Plant Genetic Systems (PGS), since 2002 part of
Bayer CropScience
Bayer AG (, commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of business include pharmaceutica ...
, is a biotech company located in Ghent, Belgium. The focus of its activities is the genetic engineering of plants. The company is best known for its work in the development of
insect
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...
-resistant
transgenic plant
Genetically modified plants have been engineered for scientific research, to create new colours in plants, deliver vaccines, and to create enhanced crops. Plant genomes can be engineered by physical methods or by use of ''Agrobacterium'' for the ...
s.
Its origin goes back to the work of
Marc Van Montagu
Marc, Baron Van Montagu (born 10 November 1933 in Ghent) is a Belgian molecular biologist. He was full professor and director of the Laboratory of Genetics at the faculty of Sciences at Ghent University (Belgium) and scientific director of the ...
and
Jeff Schell
Jozef Stefaan "Jeff", Baron Schell (20 July 1935 – 17 April 2003) was a Belgian molecular biologist.
Schell studied zoology and microbiology at the University of Ghent, Belgium. From 1967 to 1995 he worked as a professor at the university. Fro ...
at the
University of Ghent
Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium.
Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the ...
who were among the first to assemble a practical system for genetic engineering of plants. They developed a vector system for transferring foreign genes into the plant genome, by using the
Ti plasmid
A tumour inducing (Ti) plasmid is a plasmid found in pathogenic species of ''Agrobacterium'', including ''A. tumefaciens, ''A. rhizogenes'', ''A. rubi'' and ''A. vitis''.
Evolutionarily, the Ti plasmid is part of a family of plasmids carried b ...
of
Agrobacterium tumefaciens
''Agrobacterium radiobacter'' (more commonly known as ''Agrobacterium tumefaciens'') is the causal agent of crown gall disease (the formation of tumours) in over 140 species of eudicots. It is a rod-shaped, Gram-negative soil bacterium. Sympto ...
. They also found a way to make plant cells resistant to the antibiotic
kanamycin
Kanamycin A, often referred to simply as kanamycin, is an antibiotic used to treat severe bacterial infections and tuberculosis. It is not a first line treatment. It is used by mouth, injection into a vein, or injection into a muscle. Kanamycin ...
by transferring a bacterial
neomycin
Neomycin is an aminoglycoside antibiotic that displays bactericidal activity against gram-negative aerobic bacilli and some anaerobic bacilli where resistance has not yet arisen. It is generally not effective against gram-positive bacilli and an ...
phosphotransferase gene into the plant genome. PGS was the first company (in 1985) to develop genetically engineered (
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
) plants with insect tolerance by expressing genes encoding for insecticidal proteins from
Bacillus thuringiensis
''Bacillus thuringiensis'' (or Bt) is a gram-positive, soil-dwelling bacterium, the most commonly used biological pesticide worldwide. ''B. thuringiensis'' also occurs naturally in the gut of caterpillars of various types of moths and butterflie ...
(Bt).
History
The company was founded in 1982 by Marc Van Montagu and Jeff Schell who worked at the
University of Ghent
Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium.
Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the ...
, Belgium. In 1996 the company was acquired by ''AgrEvo''. In 2000, Aventis CropScience was formed through a merger of AgrEvo and
Rhône-Poulenc Agro. In 2002,
Bayer CropScience
Bayer AG (, commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of business include pharmaceutica ...
is formed through Bayer's acquisition of the plant biotech branch Aventis CropScience.
See also
*
CropDesign
CropDesign is a biotech company located in Ghent, Belgium. The company develops a portfolio of agronomic traits for the global commercial seed markets. It has developed a technology platform to discover genetic traits for the improvement of corn ...
*
Flanders Interuniversity Institute of Biotechnology
VIB is a research institute located in Flanders, Belgium. It was founded by the Flemish government in 1995, and became a full-fledged institute on 1 January 1996. The main objective of VIB is to strengthen the excellence of Flemish life sciences r ...
(VIB)
*
FlandersBio
flanders.bio, founded in 2004, is the networking organisation for the life sciences sector in Flanders and represents and supports around 350 member companies. The key strategic objectives of flanders.bio are knowledge exchange and valorisation, h ...
*
Marc Zabeau
Marc Zabeau (born Lier, 1949) is a Belgian scientist and businessman.
Biography
Marc Zabeau graduated in 1971 as a licentiate in zoology at the University of Ghent and obtained a PhD in 1974, studying the genetics of ''Escherichia coli'' in t ...
References
* Hofte H, de Greve H, Seurinck J, Jansens S, Mahillon J, Ampe C, Vandekerckhove J, Vanderbruggen H, van Montagu M, Zabeau M, et al., Structural and functional analysis of a cloned delta endotoxin of Bacillus thuringiensis berliner 1715, Eur. J. Biochem. 1986 December 1;161(2):273-80.
* Leemans J, Ti to Tomato, Tomato to Market: A decade of plant biotechnology, Bio/Technology, vol. 11, March 1993.
* Vaeck, M., A. Reynaerts, H. Hofte, S. Jansens, M. De Beuckeleer, C. Dean, M. Zabeau, M. Van Montagu & J. Leemans. 1987, Transgenic plants protected from insect attack, Nature 328: 33-37.
External links
Institute of Plant Biotechnology for Developing Countries
Biological pest control
Genetic engineering and agriculture
Biotechnology companies of Belgium
Ghent
Biotechnology companies established in 1982
1982 establishments in Belgium
Companies based in East Flanders
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