São Paulo startup creates new disease-resistant sugarcane strain

Responsible for losses estimated at BRL 5 billion each harvest, the greatest threat to sugarcane farming in Brazil is an insect measuring just over 20 millimeters long: the Diatraea saccharalis moth in its larval phase, better known as the ‘sugarcane drill.’ To combat the pest, São Paulo company PangeiaBiotech has developed an innovative solution, using even smaller organisms and genetic engineering tools. 

The startup is developing genetically modified strains of sugarcane that associate the production of two bioinsecticide proteins from the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) with a gene extracted from another microorganism, Agrobacterium sp., which gives it greater tolerance to pesticides. Genes from Bt bacteria have been used in GM processes of several plants to control pests for more than two decades.

Named BtRR, the technology was developed with the support of the Innovative Research in Small Businesses (Pipe) program of São Paulo research foundation Fapesp, the Brazilian Company for Industrial Research and Innovation (Embrapii), and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Company (Embrapa), which is conducting tests on its research areas in the capital city of Brasilia. The next step is to find business partners who are interested in licensing the technology.

The company intends to launch the first variety on the market before the planting of the 2022/23 harvest. “We expect to have our GM sugarcanes on 20 percent of Brazil’s planted area by 2030,” says engineer and agronomist Paulo Cezar de Lucca, creator of the project and PangeiaBiotech, founded in 2015.

Brazil’s genetically modified sugarcane

But the startup’s genetically modified sugarcane is not Brazil’s first. The pioneer was the CTC20BT strain, created in the lab of the Sugarcane Technology Center (CTC), an organization supported by producers and companies from the sugar-energy sector in the São Paulo town of Piracicaba. CTC20BT was approved for use in 2017 by the National Biosafety Technical Committee (CTNBio), an institution that examines genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.

The following year, the CTC had its second genetically modified variety approved: CTC9001BT. These two strains also employ a Bt gene, the purpose of which is to produce a protein from the Cry family, which acts as a bioinsecticide. When ingested by the pest, the proteins bind to receptors in the insect’s intestine, causing fatal damage to its digestive system.

PangeiaBiotech’s new strains represent a step forward in the technological evolution of sugarcane by using two different Cry proteins. “Double transgenics already existed in crops such as corn and soybeans. Now we are bringing it to sugarcane,” explains Mr. De Lucca. 

For...