Company Profile

Plant Transformation

Metahelix offers plant transformation services in various crop species including rice (japonica and indica), maize (tropical and temperate inbreds), cotton (coker and select indian lines), pearl millet, sorghum, sunflower, tomato, okra, hot pepper and a few cole crops.

Metahelix has the flexibility to use either its proprietary transformation protocols or those protocols provided to it by the customer under license. Each project can be customized to the unique needs of the customers. A typical project would consist of

• Gene Development
• Agrobacterium mediated Transformation
• Generation of Transgenic plants and verification by    PCR
• Phenotyping (in the T1 plant); Zygosity testing
• Event Selection
• Molecular Characterization

The transformation work can be done either in a standard genotype or in specialized/proprietary genotype of the customer. The entire project will be conducted on a ‘fee for service’ mode and payments are made on a milestone basis as the project is implemented.

Metahelix could also, in some cases, work with customers on a co-development basis for those traits/technologies that might be of commercial interest in India. For more information, please contact services@meta-helix.com                       

Molecular Markers

We offer customized molecular marker services to seed companies in order to augment their crop breeding programmes. We specialize in developing markers for the following applications.

• Varietal typing through molecular fingerprinting
• Molecular Markers for hybrid purity testing
• Marker Assisted Selection and introgression of   select traits
• Molecular characterization of transgenic events and   its introgression into different varietal backgrounds

We are currently developing, in partnership with seed companies, molecular markers for yellow vein mosaic virus in Okra and spotted wilt in Tomato and Melons.