About Evolutionary Genomics

Evolutionary Genomics, Inc. operates a technology platform, the Adapted Traits Platform (ATP), to identify commercially valuable genes that control important traits in animals and plants. The company is using the ATP to identify genes to improve crop plant traits, such as yield, sugar content, biomass, drought tolerance, and pest/disease resistance. The company's platform identifies key genes that have changed successfully to impart new or improved traits. In 2000, the company was issued patent number 6274319, titled 'Methods to identify evolutionarily significant changes in polynucleotide and polypeptide sequences in domestic plants and animals'. In 2004, the company was issued patent number 6743580, titled 'Methods for producing transgenic plants containing evolutionarily significant polynucleotides'. These patents are for the core Adapted Traits Platform that the company uses for the discovery of genes in humans, animals and commercial crops. The company has applied the Adapted Traits Platform in research projects, including identifying genes believed to be responsible for increases in yield in corn, increases in yield in rice, salt tolerance and sugar content in tomatoes and pest/disease resistance in soybeans, bananas and multiple other crops. EG Technology - The Adapted Traits Platform (ATP) The company's approach is to first narrow the search to genes that have undergone adaptive evolution (positively selected genes) in an organism that has an adapted trait of potential commercial value. To identify genes with impact on commercially desirable traits, the company screens first for positively selected genes. The company then focuses functional genomics efforts on demonstrating the effects of these genes on the desired traits. The company uses the Adapted Traits Platform to perform high throughput molecular evolution analysis to identify positively selected genes based on Ka (non-synonymous nucleotide substitutions per non-synonymous site)/Ks (synonymous substitutions per synonymous site) analysis. Ka/Ks analysis was developed to document the role of positive selection on known protein coding genes. Business Model The company has identified pest/disease resistance genes in bananas, soybeans and other commercially valuable crops. If validation testing of these genes is successful, it will market them to the industry. The company's soybean pest resistance project is a multiple year illustration of the evolution of a project from concept through marketing to seed companies. The project has yielded identified genes for pest resistance in soybeans with partial validation complete. The company has partially completed two generation, whole plant validation testing but has decided to postpone further testing indefinitely to focus resources on the company's banana project. The company has extended this soybean pest resistance research to other crops, including beans, tomatoes, cotton and maize and has identified candidate genes. If the company is able to complete additional validation testing, it intends to market these genes to the seed industry. The company's banana pest resistance project is another project illustration. The company identified a gene (FusR1) in bananas that appears to confer resistance to Fusarium Fungus which leads to Panama Disease. The company marketed the gene to banana companies and, in August 2020, executed a Development and Commercialization Agreement (DCA) with Dole Food Company (Dole) which includes development work funded by Dole and the framework for a long-term licensing relationship. Banana Project In 2018, the company began a project to identify genes in wild banana relatives that are resistant to Fusarium. The company used its platform to isolate a banana gene that controls Fusarium Wilt (FW), also known as Panama Disease, Tropical Race 4. The gene, which the company has named FusR1 (Fusarium Resistance 1), is a native gene in Musa species, including cultivated bananas. The company has found that, for all FW-resistant banana cultivars/species that it has tested, one version of its gene exists while, in all FW-sensitive banana cultivars/species that the company has tested, there is a different version of FusR1. And notably, a third version exists in semi-resistant varieties that has allowed the company to identify the particular nucleotide changes that are crucial for resistance to Fusarium Wilt. The company has successfully introduced FusR1 into cultivated bananas using a gene transformation approach in a project at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Of the transformed events that were produced in the transformation stage, roughly half survived to the testable stage and the company has been testing those events for Fusarium resistance over the last several months. As of December 31, 2022, roughly half of those testable events remain untested, one-quarter were discarded as being susceptible and one-quarter have shown some resistance to Fusarium. The company expects to receive additional test results over the next three months that may eliminate some of the events that have shown promise and/or may reveal additional events with promise. On June 26, 2019, the company filed a United States patent application titled IDENTIFICATION AND RESISTANCE GENES FROM WILD RELATIVES OF BANANA AND THEIR USES IN CONTROLLING PANAMA DISEASE. The company is awaiting review of these patents by the United States Patent Office. During 2021 and 2022, the company filed patents in Europe, Africa, South and Central America, Australia and Asia and are awaiting review of those as well. On August 19, 2020, the company entered into a Development and Commercialization Agreement (DCA) with Dole Food Company for the development of plant varieties within the Musa genus of the Musaceae family (including the Cavendish variety of banana) that exhibit resistance to Fusarium Wilt Tropical Race 4 (popularly known as Panama Disease). Soybean Project On April 29, 2014, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued patent 8,710,300 titled EXPRESSION OF DIRIGENT GENE EG261 AND ITS ORTHOLOGS AND PARALOGS ENHANCES PATHOGEN RESISTANCE IN PLANTS. On December 5, 2017 and March 3, 2020, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued additional patents which extended the previous patent to include additional variations of the gene. The company has filed additional patents in multiple countries that are at various stages of processing. On January 18, 2022, the company filed a patent application on its second soybean pest/disease resistance gene, EG19, and has included that gene in its ongoing two generation, whole plant validation research. The company has also discovered additional candidate genes that may impact pathogen resistance. The company entered into a Service Agreement with the Wisconsin Crop Innovation Center (WCIC) under which they have transformed soybeans using the company's genes and helped to establish the right combinations to achieve a range of expression. WCIC grew events from seven constructs of EG261 and EG19 in their greenhouses. The testing of these T2 generation seedlings at the University of Missouri is partially complete but the company has indefinitely suspended work on these genes to focus its resources on its banana projects. If it resumes these projects and results from the whole plant validation trials confirm the findings of the University of Wisconsin-Madison for EG261 and the effectiveness of the new gene, EG19, the company intends to enter negotiations for a long-term research collaboration and licensing agreement with seed companies. Research and Development For the year ended December 31, 2022, the company's research and development expenses were $417,450.