NESS ZIONA, Israel & SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–NRGene is pleased to announce that the Canadian company Haplotech Inc. won the international QuickGENETICS™ contest, which was announced in January. Haplotech Inc. was selected after presenting an innovative project that will adopt advanced genomic tools in their breeding program. The company will receive a comprehensive cannabis genomic starter package, worth the equivalent of $US 130,000, to generate unique genetic markers to identify desirable traits, such as flowering time, yield components or pathogen field resistance. The QuickGENETICS™ package includes expert consultation in the selection of germplasm, sequence-based plant diversity analysis, a proprietary-phased reference-genome of a key variety (to pseudochromosome level), a genetic map and trait mapping (QTL) with a genetic marker set for the specific traits.

Haplotech Inc. (www.haplotech.com) serves the global plant breeding industry by providing comprehensive technical services in multiple crops, as well as consultation in the areas of organization and optimization of plant breeding programs. With two facilities in Winnipeg, Canada, and field capacity in Western Canada, USA and Chile, it is capable of accelerated breeding, including DH production, trait integration, field evaluation and providing end-to-end solutions for plant breeding.

“Haplotech Inc. has demonstrated its ability to provide the plant breeding industry with successful breeding projects in hemp and multiple other crops with a straightforward practical approach to advance and accelerate breeding using our genomic tools. We are pleased to award them such a comprehensive package to further the potential for applications in hemp breeding. NRGene is committed to increase the adoption of genomic tools in the cannabis and hemp industry. The young cannabis & hemp industry has the potential to make a substantial leap in yields through genetic research, significantly improving current production processes,” said Dr. Gil Ronen, NRGene’s CEO and founder.

NRGene is uniquely positioned in the cannabis and hemp industry and offers a full portfolio of genomic solutions to accelerate the development of new breeding varieties using genomic data. Services such as QuickGENETICS™ allow growers and breeders to develop new cannabis varieties efficiently and precisely with desirable characteristics while significantly reducing costs and timelines.

“Breeding is a numbers’ game. It is a simple function of low probabilities of fixing many favourable alleles in a single individual. Molecular tools and genomic insights will enable us to provide a significant increase in the number of plants screened each year and enhance our capability to identify elite varieties. Quick plant screens will be especially important in rapidly selecting out hundreds or thousands of the least promising plants, saving us precious time and cultivation space,” said Dr. Rale Gjuric, President and founder of Haplotech Inc.

Learn more about NRGene and QuickGENETICS™

About NRGene

NRGene is a genomics company that provides turn-key solutions. Relying on a vast proprietary database and AI-based technologies, we provide some of the largest seed and food companies in the world with the computational tools they require to maximize crop yield, thus generating significant savings in both time and cost. NRGene’s tools have been implemented by leading agribiotech companies worldwide, as well as by many influential research teams in academia.

NRGene is headquartered in Ness Ziona, Israel, with an office in San Diego. For more information, please visit www.nrgene.com, and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.