Quiz

insideKWS contest

200 years of Mendel, fourth and final part

Which prize was awarded in 2020 to the researchers Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for developing this genome editing method?

It is a powerful and versatile tool to efficiently modify any gene sequence in the cells of living organisms: CRISPR-Cas9 technology is considered a revolution in medicine, biotechnology and agriculture. Which prize was awarded in 2020 to the researchers Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for developing this genome editing method?








200 years of Mendel

A new era in plant breeding

At the beginning of the 20th century, scientists rediscovered Mendel’s laws independently of each other. That gave plant breeding a mighty boost. Mendel’s findings were the basis for systematically crossing plants with clearly defined breeding objectives. A dispute between Hugo De Vries, Carl Correns and Erich Tschermak in 1900 over who had been the first to discover the segregation ratios brought Mendel’s largely forgotten work back into public consciousness. The English biologist William Bateson (1913), who vigorously defended Mendel’s theory and coined the terms “genetics” and “allele,” advanced that knowledge. And finally, Thomas Hunt Morgan (1916) published his findings on the theory of heredity, in which the chromosomes in cells corresponded to Mendel’s elements. Mendel’s place in the history of genetics was thus manifest.

In practice, Mendel’s approach enabled larger farms to record and increase the yields of their crops through targeted, systematic crossing. In the years that followed, more and more – mostly medium-sized – companies devoted themselves to professional plant breeding. And with overwhelming success: The yields of wheat and oilseed rape, for example, almost quadrupled in the course of the last century. And while yield was the focus of all breeding activities to begin with, breeders gradually became interested in new breeding objectives, especially qualitative traits. Scientists work on taste, ingredients and appearance as well as resistance to diseases. In the meantime, breeding work is no longer conducted exclusively in trial gardens, but also in high-tech laboratories. However, crossing and selection are still the basis of that work. Internationally networked teams of experts now also use highly complex biotechnology methods to speed up variety development. New breeding methods are also used at KWS.

Gregor Mendel would have been 200 this year. You can learn more about Gregor Mendel from the Gregor Mendel Foundation. You can find out more about the methods KWS uses in plant breeding and research on our intranet. |

www.gregormendel200.org or www.gregor-mendel-stiftung.de/200-jahre-gregor-mendel.

Ten prizes from KWS’ advertising media shop worth up to €40 each can be won.

Closing date for entries: February 17, 2023. The editorial team wishes you the best of luck!

Conditions of participation: Only persons who have an employment relationship with KWS on the closing date for entries, as well as retired former employees and anyone who is working in or is on a break between campaigns, are eligible to participate. By taking part in the contest, you consent to your name and photo being published in insideKWS and possibly on the KWS intranet if you win one of the prizes. To have the chance of winning one of the prizes, participants must send the right answer to the insideKWS editorial team (GMC-ESC) by e-mail or regular mail. If more than 10 correct entries are received, the winners will be decided by lots being drawn. All decisions by the organizer are final. Cash will not be payable in lieu of the prizes. The winners will be notified in writing. There is no legally enforceable right to payment of cash instead of the prize.

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