New breeding methods
“Partner counseling for plants”
We have been successfully breeding hybrids across many crops in our portfolio for years. Hybrid breeding offers many advantages – which is why we are expanding its use to more crops.
Hybrid breeding can respond more quickly to market demands than traditional breeding.
Hybrid varieties typically outperform line varieties due to the heterosis effect, also called hybrid vigor, which is based on the combination of favorable gene variants (alleles). Among other things, this makes hybrids more resilient to environmental stress.
On paper, hybrid breeding seems simple: crossing a selected inbred female line with a selected and suitable inbred male line to produce a superior offspring (hybrid). However, the process for developing hybrids is more complex – anyone who remembers Mendel’s laws of inheritance knows that when genetic material is combined there is a random segregation of genes. We often do not understand precisely how individual genes contribute to plant performance. Plant breeding is challenging as we want to fix many traits in the male and female parents so that we can then deliberately combine them in such a way that the genes contributed by one parent complement the genes contributed by the other parent, resulting in an improved hybrid.
Breeders thus have to improve both the female and male lines and select the best combinations. “It’s a bit like partner counseling for plants,” says Harold Verstegen, Head of Global Product Development, with a smile.
Why new hybrid crops?
In our SP35 strategic planning, we defined the hybridization of barley, wheat and potato as one of our playing fields. But what added value does this more complex process offer over traditional line or clone breeding? “Of course, hybrid performance and improved resilience” explains Harold. But more importantly, hybrid breeding allows better exploitation of traits. Trait improvements in barley, wheat and potatoes have been achieved, but rather slowly and with little market appreciation of their actual value. Our experience with crops like sugarbeet and oilseed rape, has shown that “value-added traits” can have a significant impact – especially when multiple traits are combined into one hybrid.
“For example, if I have a female parent with good drought tolerance and a male parent with a special resistance to ergot, and I combine the two, I can create a hybrid that combines both traits.” The combination of resilience of hybrids with resistance as well as other explicit traits enhances performance stability across different environmental stressors and improves sustainability. This reduces the need for chemical inputs in agriculture and benefits the environment.
Time and market responsiveness
Hybrid breeding generally takes longer than non-hybrid breeding. However, once a hybrid breeding program is established and focused on traits, that makes it faster to create and bring new relevant trait combinations to the market. “With hybrid breeding, I already have excellent trait carriers with the female and male lines,” says Harold. “If I want a specific dominant trait on top, I can incorporate it into one parent and quickly develop a new hybrid – responding faster to market needs.”
Stable hybrids offer significant added value for farmers and expand KWS’ business potential. “In established markets, traits are ultimately the differentiators that add value,” says Harold. “We see this in crops like sugarbeet with our CR+ and Conviso Smart varieties.”
Strategy Café with Harold Verstegen about „Hybridization & New Breeding Methods“
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