Accelerated plant breeding points to a new green revolution
"We face a great challenge in plant breeding for higher yield and more resistant crops ..."
The generation of new varieties should be seen as an integral process. This means, not only the variety reproduced but the whole process of the development of this variety should correspond to these principles. Consideration must be given to important criteria such as the preservation of the integrity of the plants, the increase of genetic diversity, the respect of the crossing barriers, as well as the interactions of the plants with the living soil and the climate.
In this case, this new technology, a pioneer in plant breeding, seeks to accelerate the results of global improvement of crops, in a development perspective that comes from the Green Revolution, which emerged in the post-Second World War period.
It is a technological platform for speed improvement in the plant breeding process, developed by a team of scientific researchers from the John Innes Center, the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney, which uses a greenhouse with abundant lighting to create environments or regimes intense one day, and with this accelerate the search and result of better yield crops.
The research team has achieved the generation of wheat from seed to seed in only 8 weeks, among other achievements, which means that it is now possible to grow up to 6 generations of wheat each year, a threefold increase in plant breeding techniques (round trip or shuttle breeding), currently used by plant breeders and researchers.
Dr. Brande Wul of the John Innes Center, Norwich, lead author of the article appeared in Nature Plants, explains why speed is essential: "At the global level, we face a great challenge in the breeding of higher yielding and more resistant crops. Being able to pass through more generations in less time will allow us to create and test genetic combinations more quickly, looking for the best combinations for different environments. "
In recent years, the levels of improvement of basic crops have stagnated, which has caused a significant impediment in the mission of the agricultural industry to generate a production that will feed the growing world population and address the impacts of climate change.
The speed improvement, says Dr. Wul, offers a potential new solution to a global challenge for the 21st century. "It was possible to have rapid cycles of plants, but they were small and insignificant, and only produced a few seeds. The new technology creates plants that look better and are healthier than those that use standard conditions. "
Dr. Wul continues: "I would like to think that in 10 years from now I could walk in a field and point to the plants whose attributes and characteristics were developed using this technology".
This technique uses fully controlled growth environments and can also be expanded to work in a standard glass house. It uses LED lights optimized to help photosynthesis in intensive regimes of up to 22 hours per day, because the idea is not to generate only heat but a quality light.
Rapid plant breeding, when used in conjunction with conventional field-based techniques, can be an important tool to allow advances in the understanding of crop genetics. "The speed of plant breeding as a platform can be combined with many other technologies, such as editing CRISPR genes to reach the final result faster," explains Dr. Lee Hickey of the University of Queensland. The study shows that traits such as the interactions between plant pathogens, the shape and structure of the plant and the time of prayer can be studied in detail and repeated using technology.
With information from the John Innes Center
Source: Martín Carrillo O. - Blueberries Consulting
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