Spanish seed company Semillas Fitó has entered a long-term partnership with Dutch genome-editing specialist Hudson River Biotechnology to create new genetic variation in tomato breeding lines, AgNavigator reports. The first work targets disease and pest resistance, alongside traits aimed at consumers.
The deal combines Fitó's germplasm and breeding expertise with Hudson River's BioMaas genome-editing platform and its trait-development work. The companies aim to address changing growing conditions, disease pressure, reduced agrochemical use and shifting consumer demand. "Successful breeding starts with understanding what growers, the value chain and consumers need," said Laia Fitó, chief R&D officer at Semillas Fitó, adding that the partnership would help the company bring successful varieties to market faster.
European breeders are preparing for the EU's proposed framework for New Genomic Techniques (NGTs), expected to take effect in 2028, and both companies said the collaboration would help them be ready as the rules change. The UK already regulates many gene-edited crops separately from GMOs, while the EU is taking a more cautious approach, keeping regulatory checks, traceability requirements and restrictions on some uses of the technology.
Lotte Westerhof, Hudson River's chief scientific officer, told AgNavigator at the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in London that regulatory progress was "100%" behind the rising interest in gene editing. "The technology has been there for a long time," she said. "As a risk for a company, that has been taken away."
The Fitó agreement is the latest of several for Hudson River. Last month it partnered with Biographica to help breeders turn trait discoveries into commercial-ready plants, starting with tomato, and with plant-engineering company Plantik to develop heat-tolerant strawberries using transgene-free genome editing.
Photo: Goldlocki / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: AgNavigator
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