GENETIC RESOURCES IN A COMMERCIAL BREEDING, A PLANT BREEDING COMPANY S VIEW Workshop II at Stende Conference State Stende cereal breeding institute, Latvia 1st of June 2012 Graminor Lars Reitan
Plant Genetic Resources Plant Genetic Resources PGR are the heritage of mankind and jewels of nature, and should be treated like that. Adapting to different climatic and edaphic conditions over centuries of natural and human controlled selection have developed combinations of genes to give raise to strain, lines, populations and cultivars that we name with the common phrase PGR.
PGR It includes both wild species, wild forms of cultivated species, landraces and grown cultivars. Every stage has its story to tell, and might be a source of new knowledge and understanding, and of genetic source for present and future cultivar development.
Groups of PGR for use in own breeding 1. Own best lines with particular traits that has to be combined with others. 2. Official available good cultivars with interesting traits (also competitors leagal available cultivars) 3. Old cultivars in NordGen and other gene banks 4. Land varieties/ races from the Nordic countries 5. Germplasm with special genes from anywhere 6. Wild forms of same species or closely related species available in collections.
GRAMINOR Graminor Breeding Company of Norway is the only commercial plant breeding institution in Norway. It is owned partly by agricultural producers through farmer s cooperation, and one third of the shares is owned by Government. The latter to secure breeding activities in non-commercial crops for our country. Our breeding activities in for instance cereals have long tradition and go back to the early days of the 20 th century.
Plant breeding in Norway 1902- Institutions Crop Financing Period Ag.Univ. Ås Ag.Research Stations (7) Cereals, forage grasses and legumes, potatoes, vegetables, fruits and berries Cereals, forage grasses and legumes, vegetables, fruits and berries Official 1902-2001 Official 1905/1922-2001 FKØV (Farms Coop) Cereals Private 1978-1993 Norwegian Cereal Breeding Co Graminor Co Cereals Cereals, forage grasses and legumes, potatoes, fruits and berries Private and official Private and official 1993-2001 2002-
Graminor AS Bioforsk Vest Njøs GRAMINOR Bjørke
Hillplot Værnes
Situated in the periphery of Europe, close to the north pole, earliness has been a central issue for all breeding activity, and for perennials winter hardiness in addition. Thus, a fragile and vulnerable balance between progress and conservation of good gene-combinations has been a necessity, and an assortative (closely related) mating has often been chosen to balance these needs. We cross the best with the best.
Crossing with exotic genetic sources has always caused steps backwards, but both in the past and in present it has been and are necessary steps. In cereals for instance, success in adopting sources of earliness depend on the combinations of the ability to mature at low temperatures. For a lot of different traits PGR sources have been used in order to increase the cultivar value.
To mention, straw stiffness, straw length and harvest index, quality parameters and particularly disease resistance sources have been carefully used in the whole breeding period. New challenges always occur as time goes by. Now we learn that climate changes will create new problems and demands for the crops, and breeding strategies have to change. New genetic and technological tools open up for utilizing PGR better.
Research projects Graminor is involved in 18 research projects nationally and internationally for the period 2009-2014 that totally amounts to 158 mill. NOK. (GN contribution is 10 mill. NOK) The National Research Council of Norway contribute to the projects with 100 mill. NOK The main objectives of most of these projects are: - to introduce important genes (resistance to diseases, quality etc.) from wild relatives /resources or non adapted genotypes - to develop marker assisted selection methods for important genes - to develop/adapt efficient methods to identify important diseases or measure important quality characters
Graminor is a participant in the big Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC), and Norway are responsible for the Chromosome 7B. Despite focus for a long time on molecar markers and MAS only the last years it has come of practical use in breeding, and wheat is in the lead. Our goal is to continue that track
Prebreeding related projects in Graminor barley at present PPP (Public Private Partnership) in barley (Combining knowledge from Field and Laboratory for Prebreeding in Barly, Six participants in Nordic barley breeding) Nordforsk Climate Change project Old cultivars and landraces tested for diseases Pickering material for testing (H.vulg x H. bulbosum offspring for disease testing) Fusarium sources for mycotoxin testing
My background I have a PhD from Agric Univ. at Ås (today UMB) since 1980. My positon has been barley and oat breeder for the Central Norway area since 1976 through the Norwegian Cereal Breeding Programme (Official) and later in the Norwegian Cereal Breeding Company (half private). Since the start in 2002 I have been employed by GRAMINOR. Today I am responsible for resistance breeding in Barley and fusarium resistance also in Oats. I am participating NordGen WG Cereals and ECPGR WG Barley, and in internal GN group for projects and technology implementation
Strategies in commercial breeding Dependant of turnover of the cultivars in market In order to pyramidize many resistance genes for a trait into one genotype it requires a lot of investments, and it is urgent to rely on some period in market to pay back Another approach is to focus on major genes that is good enough and that last for the short period the cultivar is in market. ( Cynical approach )
Dilemmas in breeding In presence and past the commercial breeders have hurried ahead and combined the best with the best in smaller steps forward, pyramidizing smaller fractons for good yield etc. They know that introducing exotic material will always make problems by implementing unwanted genes that they will struggel to get rid of. This is the resason why often limited exotic material are used in programs. It simply cost too much to afford prebreeding programs.
This also often had the concequence that all old breeding material was thrown away during the prosesses. Probably this has decreased the variability of the gene pool, more uniform, and with gene erosion and less robust cultivars as a concequence The implementation of UPOV convention and the DUS test system had the same concequences, but it is a paradox that these systems are prerequisites for a success as a breeding company.
With today s and tomorrow s technology in DNA sequencing and gene mapping, a genebank of old, thrown away breeding lines with corresponding solid phenotypic date would have been a gold mine! We know that in the decades after the re-invention of the Mendel Laws (1910-40ies) was the first place of sacrifice in plant breeding history when lots of land varieties was thrown away and lost for ever. In the period of 1980-2010 the second place of sacrifice may have occured by the plant breeding companies eager to hurry ahead, and forgot the past.
Genebanks The big challenges for gene banks and conservers of PGR are good descriptors, good phenotypic data and database systems that able the utilizing of all collected information.
Organizing gene banks in clusters with uniform interface are essential for an effective utilization of PGR for the commercial breeding industry. Utilization of the world wide network and precise demographic information opens up for possibilities of foreseeing gene combinations and genetic resources that was previously impossible. The FIGS system by utilizing such info is very interesting.
Norway had the resource in Svalbard to secure plant gene heritage, and it started with the Nordic Gene Bank storage. Lately, the Global Seed Vault has been a reality and is a tremendous important step in securing plant gene sources for future. Today 747 000 samples are stored
Ramularia