Mike Lanahan

Syngenta Biotechnology Inc.

3054 Cornwallis Road

Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

Phone: (919) 541-8513

E-mail: mike.lanahan@syngenta.com

Industrial cornstarch processing systems utilize microbially derived enzymes. The requirement for application of exogenously supplied enzymes creates constraints due to enzyme biophysical properties and manufacturing, mass transfer, process development and grain processing. The use of modified grain feedstocks for cornstarch processing would alter the constraints currently limiting the industry. Syngenta has developed technology that allows accumulation of several important classes of starch hydrolyzing enzymes directly in the endosperm of the transgenic corn kernels. Therefore, stable accumulation of enzymes, without detriment to grain viability and composition, allows "processing capability" to be built into the grain itself. Self-processing grains can be designed to meet specific, and novel, process constraints because of the flexibilities in engineering enzymes with distinct biophysical properties and enzymatic specificities. Several examples of transgenic grain, engineered for accumulation of different starch hydrolyzing enzymes, will be presented and the implications on process design and efficiency will be discussed.