VARIETAL RESEARCH: Still a Laborious Effort… Albeit on a Faster Track
By Tim Linden B uilding that better variety is a time-consuming endeavor, but over the years seed breeders have developed techniques to target desirable traits and speed up the process. Though these efforts can shave several years off a successful launch of a new variety, development is still measured in years with five years appearing to be a typical average for a new variety to survive the trial period and be offered to the grower community. “As a rule, it still takes a relatively long time to bring a new variety to market,” said Jeff Zischke, senior director of research and development, Sakata Seed America, Salinas, CA. “But there are techniques that have been developed that make a difference.” Marcio Pais de Arruda, a tomato breeder for HM. Clause in Davis, CA, made a similar point during an interview covering many different aspects of varietal research. “The way we make hybrids hasn’t dramatically changed,” he said, “but we have developed innovative techniques and processes that allow us go faster and help us to be more precise.” He said not too long ago, the normal time to develop a new variety and bring it to market was about seven years. Now he says it can be done as quickly as three to five years, especially if the effort involves adding a new trait to an existing variety. Zischke estimated that it typically takes five to six years in today’s environment. While some have lamented that more advanced techniques involving gene editing are not yet available, the
Sakata researcher does not fret about it. “I am a big believer in conventional plant breeding,” he said. “Plant breeders continue to make steady improvements using these techniques.” He has no doubt that gene editing will eventually be utilized in varietal development but it is essential that we gain the public’s trust. Zischke said breeders have done very well in utilizing time- saving and trait-targeting techniques to speed up the process and reduce the misses. He discussed a number of those processes in detail which will only be briefly discussed in this report. He said one technique researchers now use is “breeding pools,” which are used to generate parental groups with common characteristics. Zischke said if you are looking to transfer a specific trait from one parent to another in the same pool, you don’t have to start from scratch. Most of the characteristics of a line are common within the pool. Crosses between pools is generally a proven formula for making potential products. This, of course, depends on how disciplined the breeder is with his pools and how well they complement each other. Zischke said another time-saving technique is the use of tissue culture technology to generate dihaploid plants. A single plant will generate a finished and genetically fixed inbred line. This is not possible with all species and not all dihaploid plants yield useful lines, but when successful, it can dramatically speed up the process of inbred or parental line development.
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