Ultraviolet light technology for corn and soybean seeds

BioLumic's ultraviolet (UV) light technology will soon provide farmers with a new category of seed treatment for corn and soybean seed production.

How it works

The UV technology was first developed for specialty crop seeds like lettuce, strawberries, and tomatoes, using a targeted photomorphogenic signaling. This leads to a growth response induced by the plant's response to differences in the light spectrum.

The proprietary technology is based on 20 years of science and seven years of large-scale field validation. BioLumic has tested light-treated seeds on more than 3,000 United States field plots over the course of three growing seasons since 2021, with average yield increasing 15% in corn, and 12% in soybeans.

"Discovering that the same technology activated seeds as well as seedlings was a 'eureka' moment," says Jason Wargent, Ph.D., founder and chief science officer at BioLumic. "It opened the door to broad-acre, commodity production of crops like soybean and corn benefiting from the same remarkable results of UV light treatment that we had developed for seedlings."

UV light is a signal plants use to induce themselves to carry out certain processes that help their productivity as plants. This makes UV light a "programmable" input to crop seeds, allowing them to induce traits that can improve yield, quality, root growth and resilience.

This has led to the development of various "recipes" designed for particular cultivars of different crops. Seeds are treated on a conveyor belt, where they receive the recipe and drop out the other side, which means seeds can be treated as they are being bagged for distribution.

As of right now, treated seeds have six months of shelf life where it will still carry out treated benefits even after storage, says Wargent.

Gro Alliance Partnership

BioLumic's commercial expansion is made possible through a partnership with Gro Alliance, which will deploy the UV light treatment technology in Gro Alliance's corn and soybean seed production facilities. The partnership will start at Gro Alliance's Mt. Pulaski, Illinois, production facility, and expand across the Midwest starting in 2025.

"UV light signaling is the next frontier in plant science, changing the paradigm of crop production gains without solely relying on genetic modification, chemical inputs, or time-intensive breeding programs," says Steve Sibulkin, CEO of BioLumic. "Based on their longstanding record of rapid adoption of scalable innovation, partnering with Gro Alliance and their network of corn and soybean farmers and seed companies means we can rapidly deploy light-activated seeds that increase farmer profitability and contribute to a more sustainable global food production system."

Later this year, select seed companies will be given access to BioLumic Light Treatments for their cultivars and the in-seed treatment will be commercially available to the broader market in 2024.

For more information, visit biolumic.com or groalliance.com.