b'PILTON: FOR FAST-TRACK BREEDING, THE WAY MUST BE PAVEDHOW 55 GERMAN SEED COMPANIES JOINED FORCES TO SPEED UP BREEDING TOWARDS FUNGI RESISTANCE. N ew breeding methods have come to supple- GENOME EDITING METHODS: THE ment the plant breeders traditional toolbox.PROSPECT OF FAST-TRACK BREEDINGThey show potential for a significant reduction ofIf it were possible to change the genetics only min-the response time of plant breeding to the manyimally, and only where intended, thus leaving all new challenges in agriculture: climate change,other desirable traits unaltered, this might create a pests, scarcity of essential inputs, to name onlyshortcut around the many years of selection needed a few. Timely breeding solutions are more crucialin conventional breeding. Yet however much the than ever, but the conventional breeding cyclebreeders would like to use gene editing techniques, lasts 10 to 15 years. Naturally, breeders are eagerthe legislator has placed high obstacles on their to employ any method that might accelerate thispath. In 2018, the European Court of Justice classi-process. The precision of genome editing methodsfied plants developed with the help of new breeding allows to develop plants that could also have beenmethods as genetically modified organisms (GMO). bred using conventional crossing and selection In view of the high regulatory burden that comes BY: ULRIKE even though it would have taken longer to achievewith this classification, it is unrealistic that these AMORUSO-EICKHORN the same result. In the PILTON research project,methods are going to be used in plant breeding, to 55 mostly medium-sized plant breeding companiesthe detriment of clearly both agriculture and society have joined hands to explore these techniques inat large. From a scientific standpoint, the undiffer-a practical breeding context and to showcase theentiated classification of plants derived from new potential and analyse issues involved in the use ofbreeding methods as GMOs is technically wrong. such methods. The method used is CRISPR/CasPlants that cannot be distinguished from conven-and the objective is wheat enhanced with multipletionally bred varieties or a natural mutation should and durable tolerances against fungi.not be regulated as GMOs. This decision is liable to The challenges facing agriculture are knownprevent European plant breeders effectively from to everyone: Climate change, dwindling resourcesgaining the experience necessary to apply the new and new societal expectations combine to createmethods successfully. major challenges. It is a real conundrum how farm- Shortly after the ECJ ruling, German plant ers are to produce the same yields and qualities,breeders decided to initiate a proof-of-concept but in a more sustainable and environmentallyproject to showcase the potential of these meth-friendly way, while the legislator restricts the useods. This was in response to a request often made, of necessary inputs like plant protection productsheedless of the fact that the development of a plant or fertilizers. Awareness for the problems facingvariety, especially with not yet tried-and-tested plant breeders, however, is less widespread. Plantmethods, is a huge investment that nobody can and breeders basically face the same problemstheywill afford without any prospect for later commer-are farmers, after allplus the difficulties inherentcial use. More than 80 per cent of the plant breeding in their specific field of expertise. They try to findcompanies in Germany are small and medium-sized solutions to these problems by crossing. From thecompanies. Such a project is the only way to gain offspring, they are selecting plants that preciselyknowledge in such a big topic. combine the desired set of features that help the plant to survive and to thrive even under theseCAREFULLY SELECTED SAMPLE PROJECTunstable, ever more unfavourable and unpredict- Despite these difficulties, an expert group of expe-able cultivation conditions. On average, the cyclerienced breeders, scientists and communication from pre-breeding research to a marketable plantexperts was set up to analyse project ideas and to variety takes, depending on the crop species,brainstorm on how an NBT project could be imple-between 10 and 15 years. Many of these years aremented. The response was huge. Twenty-two pro-dedicated to achieving genetic stability afteratject proposals referring to a total of 13 different long lastthe desired combination of character- crop species were submitted. The group of experts istics has been observed in a plant. Cycle times ofevaluated these ideas under the aspects of added 10+ years, it must be said, are a long shot in eversocial value, positive ecological and economic less predictable environments and therefore futureeffects. They also screened them with a feasibility needs in agriculture.filter: Was itat that timerealistic to expect that 8IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'