grain of truth

DAVID J. MACKILL
IRRI Plant Breeder

Biotech wont soon replace conventional breeding

defining moment in the history of biology was the manipulation involves conventionally bred varieties. A elucidation of the laws of genetics by Gregor transgenic plant is nothing more than a conventionally bred Mendel, whose work was rediscovered and became one with a novel gene inserted into it. While the inserted widely known in 1900. Ranking in the same category a gene may add a very important feature, it remains a small century later must be the announcement of complete part of the genetic makeup that determines the overall genome sequences, notably of humans and the plant attributes of the plant. Arabidopsis. Rice has now joined this exalted company with We expect that the complete genome sequence of rice the announcement on 18 December 2002 of the completion will greatly improve our ability to breed new rice varieties. of a high-quality draft sequence of the rice genome. Our ultimate goal is to identify the function of each gene Rice geneticists labored for most of the 20th century and subsequently the most favorable alleles (versions) of to identify and map rice genes. The work hastened those genes, which we can then combine into superior rice immensely with the advent of varieties. In the future, this technology molecular markers in the 1990s. will allow us to trace all genes in our However, these painstaking efforts A basic fact of applied genetic rice breeding populations. As it resulted in a map location for perhaps becomes cheaper and more widely a few hundred major genes and a available, it should allow us to select engineering is that all similar number of genetic loci the best plants from the breeding controlling quantitative traits, only a populations without extensive field handful of which were characterized at tests. Breeders will be able to produce transgenic manipulation the DNA level. Suddenly, we now elite breeding lines by directly possess detailed sequences of an selecting for specific combinations of involves conventionally bred alleles at the molecular level. However, estimated 50,000 genes that regulate the rice plants development. these elite lines will still require Parallel to this stunning progress thorough evaluation by breeders, other varieties in molecular biology are similar agricultural scientists and, finally, advances in our ability to introduce farmers. genes into plants directly as DNA. The area planted to The challenges for rice breeders are immense. We have transgenic crops rose from nil in 1995 to over 50 million a long way to go before solving the problem of abiotic stress ha in 2001, mostly in North America. Transgenic rice is tolerance, for drought in particular. In the future, rice under evaluation in several countries, and we should expect consumers will want varieties that are not only tastier but commercial products to become available within a few also more nutritious. Also assuming a more important role years. will be such environmental concerns as durable pest One question these trends frequently raise is, What is resistance, more efficient nutrient uptake, and the cultivars the future of conventional plant breeding? First, let me point response to global climate change and pollution. Genetic out that conventional plant breeding is a misnomer. Plant engineering and genomic tools will complement these rice breeders continually reevaluate their approaches and have breeding efforts. While we may not anticipate breakadopted a wide range of tools to make their breeding efforts throughs on a par with the yield gains of the Green more efficient. For the sake of discussion, we will define Revolution semidwarfs of the 1960s, we can certainly expect conventional plant breeding as hybridization without incremental progress on many fronts. inserting transgenes, followed by field selection. One could argue that at some point we will be able to It is true that in the early days of the biotechnology create optimum genotypes entirely in the laboratory. This revolution one heard such comments as, In the future, well is an intriguing possibility, but I expect to see demand for produce new plant varieties in the lab, with no need for several more generations of scientists versed in the classical field work. However, even the staunchest advocates of the methods of plant breeding. These breeders will have a range new biology would now dispute this misguided idea. A basic of new tools to facilitate their work, but they should not fact of applied genetic engineering is that all transgenic forget how to make crosses and grow field nurseries.
34
Rice Today April 2003