Toolkit for plant breeders boosts crop yields

Source：Ringier Food Release Date：2014-11-11 157

Food & Beverage

The toolkit will enable farmers to customise genetic variations for particular varieties and growing conditions.

COLD Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has announced a new way to increase crop yield substantially.

CSHL scientists led by associate professor Zachary Lippman, together with their Israeli counterparts, have discovered a set of gene variations that can boost the tomato plant’s fruit production by as much as 100 percent.

Mr Lippman’s team has identified an array of new gene mutations that for the time provides a way to fine-tune the balance between florigen and anti-florigen, opposing hormones that control the balance between vegetative growth and flowers in tomatoes and all other flowering plants. The gene mutations will maximise fruit production without sacrificing the energy from leaves needed to support the fruits, based on the study published in Nature Genetics.

The collection of mutations achieved by Mr Lippman’s team provides plant breeders with a powerful toolkit to achieve optimum flowering and architecture for better yield gains. According to Mr Lippman, the toolkit will enable farmers to customise genetic variations for particular varieties and growing conditions.

tomato experiment using breeding toolkit

CSHL scientists have identified a set of genetic variants that can dramatically increase tomato production. On the far left is the average yield from a plant that grows standard canning tomatoes. The next three piles were produced by plants with mutations found in the toolkit. The combination of genetic mutations on the far right produces twice as many tomatoes as the standard variety. (Credit: Zachary Lippman/ Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)

Plant breeders have traditionally relied on natural variations in plant genes to boost their yield. But with yield gains flattening, the professor noted that there is an immediate need to find new methods that enable plant breeders to boost yield. Their previous work indicated that a mutation in florigen can change the balance between vegetative growth and flowering, resulting in a modification in plant architecture that can increase yield. This implied that the balance between florigen and anti-florigen might not yet be enough in tomato plants regardless of many years of breeding with natural variants.

More than 824 million around the world, equivalent to one person for every eight persons alive, do not receive adequate nourishment. The cost of food is expected to climb further and hunger to become more widespread with the continuous rise in global population.

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