High-temperature stress can result in significant yield loss in maize, particularly when the stress coincides with reproductive growth stages and grain fill. Engineering of the starch biosynthetic pathway has been prioritized as an attempt to mitigate heat stress-induced yield losses. Traditional transgenic approaches to solve this problem are complicated by the presence of the native gene encoding the wild-type versions of the genes in this pathway. Recently developed genome editing approaches offer the opportunity to replace the native coding sequence with a gene encoding the more desirable version, resulting in maize plants that express only the improved gene version. Benson Hill Biosystems has develop a novel set of genome editing tools that can be used for this purpose. Application of these genome editing approaches to generate maize lines with thermostable enzymes is expected to produce maize lines with elevated yield, particularly when grown under challenging high-temperature conditions that are expected to occur with increasing frequency as a result of climate change. Successful demonstration of these technologies during this project represents a significant market opportunity for Benson Hill Biosystems.
