PlantArcBio, an Israeli agricultural biotechnology company that discovers genes for row crops, says corn carrying its lead drought-tolerance genes produced more than double the cob weight of untransformed controls in its first open-field trial, under both standard irrigation and severe drought.

The 2026 trial in Israel covered 200 plots of inbred and hybrid corn, with several replications under normal irrigation and under sustained drought from April to August. The company says plants with its genes grew more vigorously, flowered uniformly and produced more and larger cobs; hybrids also kept greener leaves.

The genes come from the company's DIP (Direct In Plant) platform, which screens millions of genes directly in living plants under real stress rather than in a dish or by computer, and which the company says finds field-ready candidates in months rather than years.

"These field results confirm what we saw in earlier trials, and they're very encouraging," said founder and chief executive Dr Dror Shalitin, calling the replicated open-field trial an important validation of the platform.

The results are the company's own and come from a single season in one country. PlantArcBio is now seeking to license the genes to seed companies and breeding programmes for use in elite germplasm.

Photo: USDA photo by Bob Nichols / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Source: AgroPages