Aspects of Plant Breeding The plant breeding industry

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• Aspects of Plant Breeding

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The plant breeding industry

• Private sector primarily for profit (Monsanto,
  Pioneer..)
• Cost of research innovation
• Market structure
• Market organization (eg. Roundup Ready)
• High economic return
• Public sector
• Social concern
• Less economic value
• Long term research
• Minor crops
• Germplasm conservation and preservation
• Training, education, exchange of information

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Achievements of modern plant breeders (crops) 1.
Yield increase 2. Enhancement of compositional
traits (nutrition, vitamins etc..) 3. Crop
adaptation (drought, cold etc..) 4. Landscape
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1. Yield increase
Generally due to high-yielding disease
resistant environmentally responsive cultivars.
biotechnologie-vegetale
SUSVEG-Asia Tomato
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2. Enhancement of compositional traits

• starch in potato
• pro- vitamin A in rice
• Functional food

Stephanie Tremp
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3. Crop adaptation

• Drought, frost, cold tolerance
• Chilling (e.g. Peach)
• Maturity
• Photoperiod

Craterostigma plantagineum.
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4. Landscape

• Speed to flower
• Uniformity of bloom
• Consistency of flower
• Disease resistance
• Stress resistance
• Flower size
• Flower color
• Foliage color maintenance
• Durability during shipping
• Many more...

Prunus persica 'Bonfire'
Source panamseed
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Creation of blue rose was achieved introducing
blue color-related enzyme gene from pansy. Blue
carnation "Moon dust" created by similar process,
is now on the market in Japan
(AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
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Breeding Aims

• Producer
• Retailer
• Consumer

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Example Begonias
Dr. Manfred Mehring-Lemper
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Maturity
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Flower color and form
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Uniformity
B. semperflorens
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Example Poinsettias
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How do I meet those goals?!

• Breeding
• classical breeding methods (together with
  molecular breeding tools).
• Breeding strategies
• Hybrids
• Tissue culture
• Genetic engineering
• recombinant DNA technology

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Hybrid vs Open Pollinated
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Two Main Types Seed
Open Pollinated (OP) Seed
F1 Hybrid Seed

• Developed by crossing very closely related
  sibling plants
• One Inbred Line Needed for Production
• Grown in Large Fields
• Pollinated by Bees/Wind
• Includes Self Pollinations and Cross Pollinations
• Inexpensive to Produce

Developed by crossing distinctly different,
unrelated plants 2 Inbred Lines Needed for
Production Grown in Greenhouses Usually Hand
Pollinated Cross Pollinations Only Very Expensive
to Produce (Terminator technology)
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F1 Hybrid Seed

• Uniform Germination
• Unique Color Opportunities
• Uniform Flower Timing
• More Predictable
• Hybrid Vigor!

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What Is Hybrid Vigor?

• Also known as Heterosis
• Hybrid vigor is
• The condition is which a hybrid exceeds the
  performance of its parents for one or more
  characters.
• Source Principles of Cultivar Development,
  Theory and Technique, Volume 1, Walter R. Fehr,
  1993.

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So What Does That Mean?

• Basically, Hybrid Vigor (Heterosis) is a
  phenomenon that can occur when you cross two
  unrelated inbred plants.
• When these two parents cross, their DNA combines
  in a certain way.
• The two parents compliment each other so well
  that the offspring they create are often
  dramatically better than either parent.

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An Example of Hybrid Vigor
Photo from Texas AM Maize (Corn) Breeding Program
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Putting It All Together

• Plant Breeders work to develop uniform, inbred
  parent lines.
• In production, these inbred parents should
  reliably donate the same sets of chromosomes and
  genes each time they are used in a cross.
• That way we can sell very uniform hybrid seed,
  with predictable flower color and vigor.

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First Hybrid worldwide?!
B. semperflorens Primadonna, 1908
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Plant Breeding Art and Science

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Thank you very much for your attention!
May 27th no class!! June 3rd Engelmann-
tour June 10th Classical Breeding