Updated January 12, 2021:
Amfora is pleased to report excellent R&D progress towards development of its two soybean products. Our progress represents technical advancement in demonstrating that gene editing can increase the protein content of soybeans in the range of 10-15% and in accessing germplasm that can be used as genetic backgrounds for the two products in development. Both of these products will be of significant value to the US soybean industry and create opportunities for soybean growers to benefit from producing higher value soybean crops for commodity and specialty product applications.
A first product—high protein beans—will increase protein by at least 10% with minimal impact on oil or yield. This product will be broadly licensed to US soybean seed companies to improve the value of commodity beans. Such an increase in protein content will maintain the status of US-grown soybean as a preferred source of high-protein meal for use in animal feed, it will increase value across the supply chain, and reverse the trend of decreasing protein content of US-grown soybeans. A major objective is to reduce the risk of lower prices and reduced inclusion rate of soybean meal in animal feed.
A second product—ultra-high protein beans—will increase protein content by approximately 25% with a focus on developing an ingredient for plant-based meats and aquaculture feed. For these higher value specialty markets, Amfora will contract growers and crushers to vertically integrate as a high value meal supplier to end users. Amfora expects premiums to significantly increase growers’ and crushers’ profit margins.
Early analyses of gene-edited soybean lines grown suggest that gene editing can increase the protein content of beans by up to 15%. We are currently advancing the edited lines to develop pure breeding genetic stocks that can be used as parents for backcrossing the edited alleles into commercially useful germplasm. Our first-generation edits can enable both products. By backcrossing the gene edits into commodity style germplasm, Amfora can create the first product described above for license to multiple seed companies. By backcrossing the first-generation gene edits into higher protein specialty germplasm, Amfora can develop ultra-high protein beans.