Cold Tolerance

On an annual basis, about two thirds of the world’s land is subjected to temperatures below freezing and about one third of the land suffers from temperatures below -20°C.  Cold is a harsh climatic factor, which reduces the geographical distribution as well as the growing season of many crop species. Furthermore, the farming industry loses billions of dollars each year to damage caused by freezing temperatures.

Cold response, like other abiotic stress mechanisms in plants is not conferred by a single gene. As such, classical breeding has not been able to achieve frost hardiness in plants and genetic modification by by single gene transfer has not produced significant cold tolerance in plants. FuturaGene and its research partners have realized that issue of cold resistance may be best conferred by using a multi-gene regulatory approach.

FuturaGene has licensed cold-sensitive transcription factors (gene regulators which control the expression of other genes) which are postulated to play a role in the activation of key genes which are involved in enhancing cold and freezing tolerance in plants.

The transgenic expression of FuturaGene’s  transcription factors in cold-sensitive crops like soybeans, tomatoes, potatoes, rice and barley mayl provide a new way to increase the ability of such plants to survive cold temperatures.