Marker assisted selection is another area where advances can help in the development of new varieties. Linked markers can easily identify which plants carry specific traits and allow breeders to more rapidly use these traits in the breeding effort. Pais de Arruda agreed that the way vegetable breeders make a hybrid has not changed dramatically, but he said new, innovative techniques and processes do make the work easier and quicker. He said geneticists and breeders have developed new ways of using markers that help them in many ways. For example, he said breeding using information across the genome of the plants allows for more predictability. A breeder does not necessarily need to go through extensive field testing of a larger number of combinations to determine how they will all react under known circumstances. Some combinations can be eliminated before they are even made, based on DNA information. They can also follow genes/traits of interests with molecular markers to add them to a line,
which allows for faster development of a new variety with added value. The HM. Clause tomato breeder said there have also been many advances that speed up the process on the front end. Multiple generations can be developed in a year’s time as new processes and technology allow for moving through generations without growing out an entire crop. Pais de Arruda said breeding programs now include experts in other disciplines to help analyze winners and losers at a molecular level and again decrease the number of crosses that must be grown out in the field. He has been in the HM. Clause tomato breeding program for five years and he said within that short time the number of scientists involved (plant pathologists, genetics and biometrics support) has increased, with much more work being done on the gene level. “Predictive breeding” is becoming a common practice with breeders running thousands of molecular markers and then they can predict, with some degree of certainty, how the plant will perform in the field without actually planting it. Of
Marcio Pais de Arruda
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MAY | JUNE 2 021
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