On November 27, in the municipality of Patos de Minas, MG, Embrapa and Helix, a company belonging to Agroceres group, launched genetically improved varieties with BTMAX maize transgenic event. The event is highly efficient to combat sugarcane borer (Diatraea saccharalis) and fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), which is considered the most important plague among maize crops. BTMAX, obtained with the addition of a gene from the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), is a result of a fully Brazilian public-private partnership between Embrapa and Helix. The National Technical Commission on Biosafety (CTNBio) unanimously approved BTMAX in June 2022. Laboratory and field tests were conducted in relevant regions to agribusiness of maize in Brazil. According to the results, “BTMAX was as efficient as the best technology in the market and did not cause any harm to the plant leaves or ears, even in regions infested by fall armyworms, as the municipality of Rondonópolis, in Mato Grosso state. These results were the most relevant fact for the team to make a decision”, explains Cesar Moisés Camilo, a researcher at Helix. According to the researcher, with the dilution of a BTMAX maize leaf in an artificial diet replicated 25 times, 70% of the caterpillars died in 7 days. After 14 days, BTMAX eliminated 99% of the caterpillars, and the 1% left alive did not complete the life cycle. “A very important point to manage the protein resistance”, reinforces the Helix researcher. “The BTMAX maize does not present cross-resistance with the proteins in commercial events in which happens resistance break”, he states. Therefore, “BTMAX is a potent product in the field, with high expression, and represents both a new action and technology. The reason for it being such a disruptive technology” (Cesar Moisés Camilo, a researcher at Helix). Solution found in Brazilian biodiversity Urbano Ribeiral Júnior, finance director of Agroceres, reinforces the idea of technology originality. “Rival companies try this process repeatedly, so it is necessary to identify something unique the others have not done yet”, he affirms. According to Urbano, another decisive explanation about the event development is the Brazilian biodiversity. “With the results of this partnership, we demonstrated that there is a peculiarity in it, which is using the Brazilian biodiversity to solve specifically our plagues’ problems in crops, tropical world plagues”, he comments. “I believe focusing tropical agriculture makes the product viable. I believe this is the reason for the success of the first event, BTMAX, as well as other coming technologies”, he predicts. Urbano commented Brazilian science had been relevant since the beginning of the process. He used the following terms: bioprospecting of microorganisms and technological development of interest; identification of hundreds of Bt strains with toxicological potential against Spodoptera frugiperda; identification and synthesis of numerous genes; validation testing; generation of dozens of transgenic maize events; testing in laboratories, in greenhouses and in the field; and selection of a promising “elite event”. “CTNBio, world’s reference in technical excellence, approved unanimously the technology last June, so the deregulation process has already started in other countries. We have not set a date for the commercial launch of the technology because it depends on regulation. It was approved in Brazil, but we still need more approvals to export”, says the director. “We consider it a milestone for Brazilian science. Despite being developed in other countries, only two companies in the world make the technology available to farmers currently. It is a very important milestone” (Urbano Ribeiral Júnior, financial director of Agroceres) Embrapa’s microbial bank will deliver more responses Newton Portilho Carneiro, researcher at Embrapa Maize & Sorghum and leader of the project, highlights the work carried out by Fernando Hercos Valicente,also a researcher at the same Unit of Embrapa. “Valicente’s work was essential for us to identify this gene. Since the 1990s, he has been collecting Bts with enormous biodiversity of genes to control various insects. Now, the collection has more than 4,600 strains. Probably, it is the greatest collection of tropical soils Bts in South America. If each strain has, in average, two or three genes, there will be a huge probability of finding new ones in the bank”, states Newton. The researcher also says the team works with a scenario full of possibilities. Using the collection of Embrapa’s microbial bank, it will be possible to find new strains and promising Bt constructions. “We are testing plants with other genes which are as efficient as the one presented today. It opens doors to countless possibilities”, says Newton. To conclude, he emphasizes: “The product is very good. The maize plant with BTMAX event is not attacked by caterpillars”. “The maize plant with the BTMAX event is not attacked by caterpillars” (Newton Portilho Carneiro, researcher from Embrapa Maize and Sorghum) Disruptive technology For Frederico Durães, head of Embrapa Maize & Sorghum, BTMAX points to three dynamic and interconnected moments: “Science, technology and market. The challenges regarding food security in Brazil and in the world are huge. Then we are dealing with an agenda in order to provide more science and knowledge to a 8-billion-inhabitant world. As a food producer structure, for its strategic relevance in the agenda, we dare to affirm that the maize Brazil produces is a commodity, but the technology is not”, reinforces Durães. “Embrapa, focusing a bio and RD&I platform, including a smart lab, has been producing intelligent and creative initiatives and movements to evolve from first generation to advanced generations of bioimputs, fed by biotechnology, synthetic biology, gene editing, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, strategic alliances, and functional agreements”, he explains. “In theory and practice, we demonstrate the integration of knowledge, technology, and product to add value and impacts for farmers and tropical agriculture”, the head affirms. “Today we are demonstrating, during a high level event of technological exhibition, business opportunities, and professional networking, the logics of construction by cocriation and codevelopment of a transgenic event resulting from scientific bases in a technical-scientific phenomenon. We are doing it with such magnificence, with such purpose that, for sure, with the partnership established with Helix, we are before an enormous potential of becoming a market phenomenon. This moves the world of a science with purpose”, states Durães. “We have something new and different in the national market. We need science to talk about technology. Focusing in science and its results requires noticed validation. This provides elements and nurtures negotiations to a strategic action, aiming at market development” (Frederico Durães, head of Embrapa Maize and Sorghum) "It is time to focus on technology. It is time for business partnership. At this moment, Embrapa, represented by managers, scientists, negotiators, and supporters, is absolutely protagonist and solidary” (Frederico Durães, head of Embrapa Maize and Sorghum) BTMAX overview BTMAX event is the result of a national public-private partnership between Embrapa and Helix, a company that belongs to the Agroceres group. A Public Call by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), and Funding Authority for Studies and Projects (FINEP) established the partnership, aiming to support technological information in the agribusiness sector (Inova Agro Call – 2013). “We partnered with Embrapa, and one of the thematic areas was exactly what we wanted: development of transgenic events. Therefore, we created a business plan with Embrapa Maize & Sorghum. Fortunately, this partnership was selected, with FINEP supporting Helix and BNDES supporting Embrapa. A high-risk project, whose initial support was extremely important. Finally, we could start the partnership”, comments the finance director of Agroceres, Urbano Riveiral Júnior. CTNBio approved the transgenic event during the 252nd ordinary meeting on June 2, 2022. During a video conference, on the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation YouTube channel, Paulo Barroso, the president of the Biosafety National Technical Commission, affirms: “the main differential of the event, in addition to specific technological issues, is the fact that the technology was produced by two Brazilian companies: one of them is private, Helix, and the other is public, Embrapa." “The event’s development and the whole process of security evaluation were completely carried out in Brazil. It is a milestone for Brazilian science, which had already produced genetically modified organisms of soya, beans, eucalypt, and eventually maize”, he says. According to the president of CTNBio, “the process was very well instructed, in accordance with matters concerning food and environmental security”, he reinforced. The process of releasing BTMAX event for commercial use of in other countries has already been started by Helix. In Brazil, the date for the start of commercialization has not been defined yet.