thanks for the question. I studied the documents from opposition division and board of appeal with both were working on the case.
the patent was developed by Plant Biosciences (which hold the previous patent) and Senminis.
the patent equal with the previous one because it is a crossing between wild plants from Sicily and commercially traded broccoli. The result is a higher level in glucosinolates in the resulting crosses / varieties.
there is a marker gene that can be used to perform the crosses, but the patent does not cover any transferal of genes by technical means.
the difference concerns a technical detail: there are many glucosinolates in broccoli. To synthesize them, a gene named ELONG is important. In the present case, the gene ELONG in the resulting plants does not stem from the wild broccoli, but from the commercially traded broccoli. Seminis claims that in most cases, the ELONG gene is linked to the Myb28 gene. Thus the technical 'surprise' is that in the final resulting broccoli you can find the Myb28 gene from the wild broccoli, but not the ELONG gene from the wild broccoli. Note: this just happened by occasion.
in result of the 'split' of the two gene, a specific portion of glucosinolates (glucoraphanin) is higher in comparison to another (glucoiberin). Note: the desired effect is the higher content of glucosinulates. the proportion of the two compounds is not described to have an effect.
SUMMARY: The patent still follows the main idea of the 'old broccoli'. there are relatively minor differences in the resulting plants, which can be considered as being within the natural variation of broccoli plants with a higher concentration in glucosinulates.
Am 27.09.23 um 21:09 schrieb ARCHE NOAH Dagmar Urban:
Hi all,
thanks a lot, I really like this teaser to the protest next week!
Unfortunately, I did not have time to really check the new patent. Christoph, if you know more, could you (for the case of journalist calls) please share:
-What is the difference to the “old” super broccoli? E.g. Do we know why was it granted? Was it only granted because it was applied for before 2017, as I did not see random mutagenesis in my (admittedly very quick) scan?
-Do I understand correctly that the patent is only on hybrids? The number 1 question I get is if something in Arche Noah’s collection could be affected by a patent – I would say no in this case as I do not see a claim for any other plants with the same properties, or am I wrong here?
Cheers, Dagmar
*Von:*Npos_2018 npos_2018-bounces@testbiotech.de *Im Auftrag von *Johanna Eckhardt *Gesendet:* Mittwoch, 27. September 2023 16:46 *An:* npos_2018@testbiotech.de *Betreff:* [Npos_2018] Press release for tomorrow
Dear all,
attached the final press release as it will be sent out tomorrow morning.
Important corrections still possible until tomorrow 7h CET.
Feel free to use the pictures attached.
Kind regards, Johanna
*Mag. Johanna ECKHARDT*
Project Coordination
Tel. +43 680 21 26 343
johanna.eckhardt@no-patents-on-seeds.org
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