Whiteboard2Boardroom presents innovations from regional universities, hospitals, research organizations to encourage commercialization.

1. New Trait for Flood Tolerance and
Drought Resistance in Plants
Presentation by:
Samuel E. Bish, Ph.D.
Interim Director
Senior Licensing and Business
Development Associate (Life Sciences)
Technology Advancement Office
Research by:
Molecular Genetics and Soybean Genomics Laboratory
Henry T. Nguyen, Ph.D.
Curators' Distinguished Professor
Heng Ye, Ph.D.
Post Doctoral Research Associate
Babu Valliyodan, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist

2. Overview • Problem: Soybean and flood stress
• Our solution
• Value Proposition/Competitive advantages
• Potential applications
• Market overview
• Intellectual property status
• Competing solutions
• Partnering information

3. Flood
Stress
Lower
YieldSoybean and flood stress
Damaged roots: inadequate water and nutrient
Poor symbiotic nitrogen fixation
Accumulation of toxic compounds
Favorable conditions for plant diseases
Non-stressed

4. • Soybean is particularly sensitive to flooding
• As short as 2 days of waterlogging cause 27% yield reduction and >70%
reduction for longer period of waterlogging.
• <10% current varieties showed moderate tolerance to waterlogging.
Soybean and flood stress
(Shattering in soybeans due to
repeated wetting and drying.
Source: pioneer website)

5. Increased tolerance to other abiotic stresses
Our solution
A novel trait for soybean flood tolerance:
Small Auxin Upregulated Protein_Flooding
Tolerance (SAUR_FT) gene
Improved waterlogging tolerance
Yield increased up to 55%
Nutrient deficiencyDrought

6. Value Proposition/Competitive advantages
• Increase tolerance to abiotic stresses, such as
flooding/waterlogging, drought, and nutrient
deficiency.
• Increase yield of crops under stress and non-stress
conditions.
• Increase soybean production and food security
across the world
Image source: Syngenta

7. Potential applications
• Can be incorporated into high value soybean varieties by marker-
assisted breeding
• Can be edited to create a improved allele of the SAUR_FT by genome-
editing, such as CRISPER/Cas9
• Can be modified and inserted into other crops such as rice, corn,
beans, alfalfa, and lentils

8. Market overview: Soybean Production Market
(Transparency Market Research)
• 2017: US $146.23 billion
• >2500 varieties in many sizes, shapes, and colors
• Total soybean biotech traits value at $13 billion in 2017
• 2025: US $215.746 billion
• Increasing market value while
each new trait can be
incorporated into multiple
varieties

9. Market overview: Soybean Production by Countries
34%
31%
18%
4%
3%
2% 2%
6%
United States
Brazil
Argentina
China
Paraguay
India
Canada
Other countries
(Transparency Market Research)

10. Intellectual property status
• Patent Application Pending
• Application #: PCT/US2019/017703
• Filing date: 02/12/2019

11. Competing solutions
Large scale plant molecular
approaches
Chemical applications/additives
Ethylene stress
response pathway
regulators
Auxin or synthetic
auxin derivatives

12. Developmental Stages
Discovery of
the new traits
Proof-of-Concept:
Enhanced flood tolerance confirmed
Enhanced drought tolerance confirmed
Further Progress:
Incorporated the natural
tolerant allele into an elite
line from Mizzou
On-going:
Integrating the traits into soybean
plants under field trials
Next:
Transfer new alleles into
designated elite
background by MAS
On-going:
Confirm tolerance to other
abiotic stresses such as
nutrient deficiency stress
Next:
Create a new allele conferring improved effect
in root system and stress tolerance
? ? ? ?

13. Seeking:
• Licensing
• Entrepreneurial Partnership
• Research Partnership/Collaboration
Partnering

14. Samuel E. Bish, Ph.D.
Interim Director
Senior Licensing and Business Development
Associate (Life Sciences)
Technology Advancement Office
University of Missouri-Columbia
Thank you!
For more information please contact:
Phone: 573-882-5016 (Direct); 573-882-6013 (Main Office)
bishs@missouri.edu