Today, Avestha Gengraine Technologies Pvt.Ltd,India’s leading fully integrated biotechnology & bioinformatics firm, announced that the Indian Patent Office has granted a patent to the company on ‘cloning and sequencing of AGTSAL 11 rice gene from IR-64 variety implicated in salinity stress tolerance’.

This invention will open up the opportunities in developing salt tolerant lines in rice in India. The Salt Tolerance Program is a breakthrough for the agricultural industry, since the present agricultural practices and the increasing use of chemical fertilizers makes a large part of the arable land unfavourable for cultivation due to high salinity. Moreover, it could be transferred to any other crop within a short time span, as the technology is not crop specific.

Dr.Villoo Morawala Patell, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Avestha Gengraine Technologies Pvt. Ltd, says, “We are thrilled by this grant. This patent’s technology will help Avesthagen to develop innovative solutions to benefit farmers”.

This patent follows close to the previous granting of patents to Avesthagen in South Africa and Australia entitled ‘A process for generating genetically modified pearl millet through Agrobacterium and biolistic transformation.’ Over the years Avesthagen has made numerous inventions and now it has a significant portfolio of 137 patent applications of which 61 relate to Agri-Biotech domain.  This patent positioning gives Avesthagen substantial freedom to operate in Agricultural domain. ‘We constantly aim to produce breakthrough solutions that are advantageous for our end users and this patent restates our commitment.’

Source From: LINOpinion  - The Lintas Public Relations Division