REHOVOT, Israel, March 10, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rosetta Green Ltd. ("Company") (TASE:RSTG), which operates in the fields of crop improvement for agriculture and alternative fuels, reports successful results in a preliminary study on the microRNA gene RGN-131. RGN-131 was identified by the Company as having potential to improve tolerance to drought and extreme environmental conditions in plants. The experiment demonstrated significantly improved tolerance and survival of RGN-131 potato plants to drought stress, compared to the control group.
Amir Avniel, the Company's CEO noted: "We are marking an important achievement to the Company. These successful experimental results constitute a significant improvement in the plants' ability to withstand extreme stress conditions. The improvement of crop durability is highly important to sustainable agriculture worldwide, and even more so in light of peak prices of global food crops. The development of agricultural crops with improved tolerance to drought stress and extreme weather conditions has crucial economic significance. Drought endurance is one of the central goals in the research and development pipelines of major seed companies."
The goal of the experiment was to examine the tolerance of potato plants improved with microRNA RGN-131 to extreme conditions, simulating drought stress. The experiment was conducted in the Company's laboratories and in the Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot. Potato plants expressing RGN-131 demonstrated significantly improved survival and tolerance to drought conditions compared to the control plants (which were not genetically improved). At the end of the drought period, the two groups of plants (the control group and the improved plants) were irrigated normally. Only plants expressing RGN-131 successfully recovered and continued to develop, while the control plants completely wilted and could not continue to grow.
These experiments are the continuation of experiments in which the Company previously showed that RGN-131 expressing model plants demonstrated improved drought tolerance. It the future, the Company plans to test the function of RGN-131 in other crops such as wheat, corn, rice, soy and cotton.
About the RGN-131 gene
The RGN-131 gene is part of a group of genes which were discovered and characterized by the Company using its unique technological platform as having potential to improve tolerance to drought, salinity and high temperature conditions in plants. Additional microRNA sequences are currently in various stages of validation by the Company in order to examine their ability to improve these and other traits in agricultural crops. Publicly available resources suggest that drought constitutes one of the most serious problems for farmers around the world, having a significant effect on crops and agricultural output.
About Rosetta Green
Rosetta Green Ltd. () develops improved plant traits using innovative genes called microRNAs for the agriculture and biofuel industries. The Company specializes in the identification and use of these unique genes that function as "main bio-switches" to control key processes in major crops such as corn, wheat, rice, soybean, cotton, canola and algae. Rosetta Green's current trait development portfolio includes improved abiotic stress tolerance, increased yield, improved nitrogen use efficiency, improved cotton fiber quality, increased yield for canola and soybean, increased oil content in algae, castor bean and canola for the biofuel industry and improved algal traits for various industrial applications. Rosetta Green was formed in 2010 by the spin-off of the agro-biotechnology division of Rosetta Genomics Ltd (Nasdaq:ROSG), Rosetta Green completed an IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in February 2011 (TASE:RSTG). For additional information please visit Rosetta Green's website at .
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This press release contains "forward-looking statements." These statements include words like "may," "expects," "believes," "scheduled," "potentially" and "intends," and they describe opinions about future events. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Rosetta Green Ltd. to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
CONTACT: Investor Relations Limor Zur-Stoller - CFO limor.stoller@rosettagreen.com Research & Business Development Rudy Maor - CTO rudy.maor@rosettagreen.com