b'possible to completely step-change some of the process stepsWe typically use one planting season for building a platform, if the barley harvested from the field was already optimized forand we then screen platforms for specific traits in just a few brewing. weeks, Wendt adds. And, as we use very specific PCR reac-To meet that goal, Carlsberg Brewerys breeding programtions, we only extract plants that have exactly the mutation we focused on improving the brewing properties of barley, withare looking for. That also saves time.geneticists and brewers aiming for varieties with better beer taste, better foaming properties, and lower energy requirements for brewing. In some aspects, the brewing process is just about nurtur-ing the good parts of barley while removing the bad parts, says Hambraeus, By using barley that contains more of the good parts and less of the bad parts, we can simplify the brewing pro-cess, making it more efficient and sustainable without compro-mising on quality. Carlsberg Brewery doesnt use GMO in their products and has never pursued GM technologies for their trait development programs. Instead, it innovates with conventional breeding. One of the solutions Hambraeus and his colleagues developed to further their breeding program is called FIND-IT, an acronym for Fast Identification of Nucleotide variants by droplet DigITal PCR (polymerase chain reaction). FIND-IT is a simple, agile droplet digital PCR (ddPCR)-based high-throughput genotyping approach. The FIND-IT system pools and then screens large, lowmutation density variant pop-ulationseither natural germplasm collections or populations derived from induced mutagenesisto identify desired traits. A screening cycle is achievable inside of 10 days. While traditionalTraitomic recently worked with a team at the University of mutation libraries span about 3,000 to 5,000 plants, a FIND-ITCopenhagen to develop lupin plants with reduced alkaloid levels. To population spans several hundreds of thousands.find the specific trait, Traitomic screened thousands of lupin seeds. These large populations allow FIND-IT to circumvent many of the negative aspects of other mutational screening approaches. With FIND-IT, it is possible to reduce background mutations to aFIND-IT Beyond Brewingminimum while still achieving a high probability of finding exactlyFIND-IT is applicable to any kind of plant. Given the success of the mutation sought, all at a significantly faster rate. the technology within a barley context, the research team soon FIND-IT quickly proved its value when it was ready to usebegan thinking about how to leverage the technology outside of a few years ago, with Carlsberg Brewery using it to identifybrewing. brewing-relevant traits in barley at unprecedented speed.In 2019, members of the team developed a spin-off company Indeed, the pace and specificity of the technology evencalled Traitomic, naming Hambraeus as managing director and surprised the research team, says Hambraeus. Whats more,Wendt the technology lead. Since it opened for business, the co-inventor Toni Wendt explains that the system made the teamcompany has attracted significant attention from both compa-realize they could now change the entire way they worked withnies and academia.trait development.Traitomic recently worked with a team at the University of With FIND-IT, we accessed specific mutations so quickly thatCopenhagen to develop lupin plants with reduced alkaloid levels. we could directly test our trait-hypothesis in real plants, ratherTraitomic has also participated in a domestication program on than spending time discussing which mutations might have thequinoa. The company will soon publicly share more examples highest probability to meet our needs, he says. This increasedof FIND-ITs success across many different crops and varieties, our research efficiency dramatically. including cereals, legumes and vegetables. 30/ SEEDWORLD.COMJANUARY 2024'