b'Conventional BreedingWith a High-tech Twist Chemical mutagenesis as a plant breeding tool is not new, but its power is growing thanks to cutting-edge software advancement and private industry innovation.Treena HeinITS BEEN ABOUT90 years since plant breeders first successfully used mutationnatures own plant breed-ing toolto develop improved crops. The technique, initially used to breed a better tobacco cultivar, has directly resulted in huge crop steps forward in agricultural productivity, includ-ing the creation of many cultivars ready for propagation, as well as stock for further breeding. Indeed, according to scientists from Austria and the UK who penned a chapter in a new book called Mutation Breeding for Sustainable Food Production and Climate Resilience, chemical mutagenesis has contributed over 3,330 cultivars in more than 220 plant species. The authors note that, among its many advantages, plant breeding using mutation universally applies to all plant species, allows for mutation induction in elite materials (with little or no additional breeding needed) and is an efficient way of devel-oping new, improved lines.That speed is now magnitudes faster. Brewers and BreedersThis story begins more than 20 years ago when Gustav Hambraeus was hired first as a post doc researcher and then as a senior researcher at Carlsberg Brewery in Denmark. He was hired to a team that developed barley varieties better suited for brewing, aiming to ultimately improve the quality of Carlsberg Brewerys beer.Traitomic is developing traits inHe and his team soon developed a bold hypothesis: more than 25 different crops and is The beer-making process has been refined for thou- about to launch TraitSource, through sands of years, but brewers are still optimizing every part ofwhich scientists from around the the process in order to improve quality and reduce time andworld will have direct access to costs, Hambraeus explains. We had an idea that it might bespecific traits in over 20 crops.28/ SEEDWORLD.COMJANUARY 2024'