BASF Plant Science is a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a ...

BASF BASF SE () is a German multinational chemical company and the largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters is located in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The BASF Group comprises subsidiaries and joint ventures in more than 80 countries ...

in which all plant

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used ...

activities are consolidated. The company was founded in 1998 and employs approximately 700 people at 6 different locations worldwide.BASF – Plant biotechnology
/ref> The headquarters of BASF Plant Science is located in

Research Triangle Park Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the largest research park in the United States, occupying in North Carolina and hosting more than 300 companies and 65,000 workers. The facility is named for its location relative to the three surrounding cities ...

(North Carolina, USA) and has research sites in the US, Canada, and Europe. The company is mainly developing

genetically modified Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including ...

seeds at these locations.

Company profile

The company genetically modifies crops like

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American English, North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous ...

, soy,

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

canola Close-up of canola blooms Canola flower Rapeseed oil is one of the oldest known vegetable oils. There are both edible and industrial forms produced from rapeseed, the seed of several cultivars of the plant family Brassicaceae. Historically, ...

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus '' Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalk ...

sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and which is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet ('' Beta vulgaris''). Together ...

, and

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Uni ...

es "for more efficient

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...

". Together with subsidiaries and partners, as well as in cooperation with universities and research institutions, BASF Plant Science is also developing new procedures and practices in genetic technology.

Genetically modified crops Genetically modified crops (GM crops) are plants used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified using genetic engineering methods. Plant genomes can be engineered by physical methods or by use of ''Agrobacterium'' for the delivery of ...

by BASF are sold and distributed through biotechnology companies like

Monsanto The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in ...

, KWS Saat, Embrapa,Press Release �
BASF and Embrapa’s Cultivance soybeans receive approval for commercial cultivation in Brazil.
or CTC (

Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira (English language, English:''Sugarcane Research Center'') or CTC is the largest sugarcane technology center in the world. Its headquarters is located in Piracicaba, São Paulo in one of the most prosperous agribus ...

Products

As of 2011, BASF Plant Science has developed three products: *

Amflora Amflora (also known as EH92-527-1) is a genetically modified potato cultivar developed by BASF Plant Science. "Amflora" potato plants produce pure amylopectin starch that is processed to waxy potato starch. It was approved for industrial applica ...

, a potato developed initially for the European market, producing pure

amylopectin Amylopectin is a water-insoluble polysaccharide and highly branched polymer of α-glucose units found in plants. It is one of the two components of starch, the other being amylose. Plants store starch within specialized organelles called amyloplas ...

starch for industrial use.

Waxy potato starch Waxy potato starch is a variety of commercially available starch composed almost entirely of amylopectin molecules, extracted from new potato varieties. Standard starch extracted from traditional potato varieties contains both amylose and amylopect ...

is used in industrial procedures to make yarn stronger and paper glossier; it also makes spray concrete adhere better to walls. Due to lack of acceptance of GM crops in Europe, in 2012 BASF Plant Science decided to stop its commercialization and research activities on the European potato varieties Amflora and Fortuna. Further it announced the relocation of the corporate headquarters from Germany to the USA. * Cultivance is an herbicide resistant soybean. It received market permission from Brazil in 2010. Marketing and sales of Cultivance are through Embrapa, a Brazilian company. * NutriDense is a higher

nutrition Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients, which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures. Failure to obtain sufficient ...

al maize plant used as a feed source for pigs, chickens, and cows. A range of more crops are in the pipeline: * Maize, soy, canola, and cotton: The aim is higher biomass, and plants that better resist environmental factors such as drought or disease. These crops are developed on the island of

Kauai Kauai, () anglicized as Kauai ( ), is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands (after Niʻihau). With an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), it is the fourth-largest of these islands and the 21st largest islan ...

in Hawaii and are distributed in cooperation with

. * Sugarcane, sugar beet: The aim is to develop plants that produce more

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or do ...

for use in food or as raw material for

biofuel Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. According to the United States Energy Information Administration ...

production. * Fortuna Potato: developed for resistance against ''

Phytophthora infestans ''Phytophthora infestans'' is an oomycete or water mold, a fungus-like microorganism that causes the serious potato and tomato disease known as late blight or potato blight. Early blight, caused by ''Alternaria solani'', is also often called "po ...

'', a disease which is difficult to combat for European agriculturists. Other products are being developed for the food industry for use in

genetically modified food Genetically modified foods (GM foods), also known as genetically engineered foods (GE foods), or bioengineered foods are foods produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA using the methods of genetic engineering. Gene ...

s. Examples include plants with a higher content of

omega-3 fatty acid Omega−3 fatty acids, also called Omega-3 oils, ω−3 fatty acids or ''n''−3 fatty acids, are polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) characterized by the presence of a double bond, three atoms away from the terminal methyl group in their chem ...

s for preventing cardiovascular diseases, and plants with a higher content of

astaxanthin Astaxanthin is a keto-carotenoid within a group of chemical compounds known as terpenes. Astaxanthin is a metabolite of zeaxanthin and canthaxanthin, containing both hydroxyl and ketone functional groups. It is a lipid-soluble pigment with red ...

which is used in

fish farming upright=1.3, Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture) at Loch Ainort, Isle of Skye">mariculture.html" ;"title="Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture">Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture) at Loch Ainort, Isle of Skye, Scotland Fish farming o ...

as feed additive,Wipo
/ref> and as a

food supplement A dietary supplement is a manufactured product intended to supplement one's diet by taking a pill, capsule, tablet, powder, or liquid. A supplement can provide nutrients either extracted from food sources or that are synthetic in order ...

for humans.

References

External links

BASF plant biotechnology
{{DEFAULTSORT:Basf Plant Science BASF Genetically modified organisms in agriculture Biotechnology companies of Germany Biotechnology companies of the United States Biotechnology companies established in 1998 1998 establishments in North Carolina