Accelerated breeding –
keeping pace with change

Temperature extremes, irregular rainfall and increasing disease pressure are jeopardizing agricultural yields worldwide. Plant breeding is faced with the task of providing solutions to the various challenges as quickly as possible. A crucial lever for adapting faster to change is speeding up variety development by harnessing advances in technology.

Predicting the potential of crossbreeds

A key technology for accelerating this process is “genomic selection”. This makes it possible to use genetic information to select the best plants for breeding without having to carry out extensive field trials. Scientists use so-called marker profiles that contain several thousand DNA sequences of a plant and represent a unique “genetic fingerprint”. Thanks to these profiles and statistical and mathematical models, the breeding value of parent plants can be reliably predicted – saving a considerable amount of time.

However, the further breeders look into the future, the less accurate the forecasts become. “The more ‘blind’ cycles we go through without checking the results in the field, the less accurate the predictions become,” explains Harold Verstegen. “So for us it’s about finding the ‘sweet spot’ for each crop – the best compromise between speed and accuracy.”

Although the method has been an integral part of the breeding toolbox since the 2010s, its potential is far from exhausted. On the one hand, the prediction models used for the forecasts are becoming increasingly precise. On the other hand, advances in technology are making DNA analyses more cost-effective and efficient.

Pure-bred lines in just one step

Genomic selection unlocks its full potential in combination with the “double haploid method” (DH), which is particularly important in hybrid breeding. Traditionally, hybrids are produced from so-called inbred lines, where plants are repeatedly crossbred with themselves. The advantage: After several generations, the offspring are “pure-bred,” meaning they have two identical gene variants (alleles) for the relevant traits. This in turn means that the desired properties are then consistently passed on to their hybrid offspring. The DH technique bypasses a process that takes several years and produces pure-bred plants in just one step. Thanks to improved procedures developed individually for each crop, more and more double haploid plants can be produced.

“If we can use molecular analyses to predict the best candidates for a crossbreed and produce a large number of pure-bred plants in a short time, this saves us a considerable amount of time,” explains Verstegen.

Bringing different methods together in future

The combined use of the DH method and genomic selection in hybrid breeding is especially valuable for improving complex traits like yield, which are influenced by many genes. In contrast, genome editing enables the targeted modification of individual genes. This makes it a powerful tool to optimize traits such as disease resistance. Genome editing is therefore a very effective addition to the breeding toolbox, for example when it comes to integrating individual traits into existing high-performing varieties.

Progress and the combination of these methods are creating exciting new opportunities. “From a technical point of view, it should be possible to shorten actual product development by up to two thirds,” says Harold Verstegen. “Our advantage as KWS is that we know our crops inside out. Not every problem can be solved with a hammer, but thanks to our broad portfolio, we have a lot of experience in using our tools efficiently.”