DuPont Unveils New Laser Seed Technology
2 September 2008 DuPont Co.’s Pioneer Hi-Bred International division has unveiled its new "laser-assisted seed selection" technology, with which it hopes to halve production time for genetically modified (GM) crops. High-tech carbon dioxide lasers quickly carve DNA from seeds, speeding the development of Pioneer’s biotech crops.
While not revealing how many lasers they are deploying, DuPont officials said they are able to streamline 25 North American leaf tissue sampling centers into no more than three kernel sampling facilities. "The whole name of the game is speed," said Pioneer President Paul Schickler. Previously, promising seeds were planted in test fields; those plants were cultivated, then parts of their leaves were punched out for analysis. The new, automated process removes the years of field trials and physical analysis of plant traits. Instead, corn cobs are sprayed with magnetic paint, then shelled. Each paint-coated kernel is grabbed by a magnet and held as the laser shears off the small portion to be analyzed. Pioneer will use the lasers, in combination with modern methods to analyze and select a seed’s genetic qualities, without having to wait for a plant to grow.
Pioneer has applied for more than 10 different patents related to the laser technology. Company officials, saying the technology will increase the size and scope of research five-fold in the next three years, plan to boost research and product development investment by 15% to 20% in 2009. Pioneer will also increase revenue committed to research from around 10% to 12%, said Schickler.
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