WILLAGRI
“Boosted breeding” is an innovative plant reproduction technology developed by the American company Ohalo . Brought out of the shadows last year thanks to $100 million in funding, the American start-up Ohalo, which specialises in plant breeding, is making a lot of noise with its “boosted breeding” technology. This technology allows plants to pass on 100% of their genes to their offspring instead of the usual 50% in traditional breeding. After hybrid breeding, which is almost a hundred years old, stimulated breeding could have an impact of the same magnitude, not on a selection of crops but on all crops.
At the World Agri-Tech Summit in San Francisco in March, Friedberg provided Agfunder with details of the technique that ensures that the offspring of two plants will inherit all the desired traits, ensuring that both parents pass on their entire genome to their offspring.
Genetically identical seeds
The technology uses specific proteins to effectively turn off each parent’s natural gene-splitting mechanism during reproduction. This new technology could be a game-changer in the world of crop breeding, as the resulting plants contain all of the beneficial characteristics of both parents rather than a random half of each parent’s characteristics. In other words, the result is offspring with doubled genetic material, a phenomenon called polyploidy.
Interestingly, plants bred using this technology have significantly higher yields, the startup, which was founded in 2019 by Friedberg’s investment firm, its CEO, and venture capital fund The Production Board, tells Agfunder.
Because the process provides the entire genome of each of the boosted parent plants, all the seeds they produce are genetically identical, Friedberg says. The technology developed by Ohalo can therefore replace traditional vegetative propagation methods Therefore, Ohalo‘s technology can enable the production of uniform seeds for farmers, replacing the traditional vegetative propagation methods still used in many cropping systems. It saves time and money.
Box: potatoes and boosted breeding
Using potatoes as an example, Friedberg explains in Agfunder that they all produce seeds that are all genetically different, so most potatoes are grown from other potatoes (“seed potatoes”), which are cut into small pieces and planted. For the first time, boosted breeding will make it possible to create real potato seeds.
The advantages of this technology for potatoes are numerous:
- Improved resistance to diseases and pests through the combination of genes of different varieties;
- Increased yields: the possibility of passing on 100% of the genes of the parents allows to maximize favorable characteristics and obtain more abundant harvests;
- Improved nutritional quality: the ability to combine genes increases the content of vitamins, minerals and other health-promoting components;
- Adaptation to climate change: boosted breeding makes it possible to develop potato varieties that are more resistant to drought and extreme temperatures;
- Reduction in the use of inputs: the selection of resistant varieties reduces the use of fertilizers and phytosanitary products;
- Creation of new varieties with specific characteristics: choice of textures, colours, starch content, etc.
The three main benefits of boosted breeding
Finally, stimulated selection has three main advantages:
- The first is precision selection, which allows you to control what you combine and to obtain the exact alliance of mother and father. This allows you to accumulate the desired characteristics and know what you are going to get when you cross.
- The second advantage is the production of “real seeds”, because all seeds have exactly the same genetic capital. Seeds can be produced in crops where seeds are banned or strictly regulated for reasons related to food safety, environmental protection or the preservation of biodiversity. This is the case for GMOs, invasive alien species or protected varieties. Seed production by boosted breeding becomes possible in cases where inbreeding and hybridization are difficult or impossible. This is the case for plants with self-incompatibility mechanisms or genetic barriers.
Stimulated selection also allows the production of seeds in cases of apomixis of asexually reproducing plants or polyploidy, i.e. the presence of multiple sets of chromosomes creating barriers to hybridization. Many species of fruit, such as some varieties of apples, are self-incompatible. Hybridization between very distant species such as wheat and rice is extremely difficult due to genetic barriers. Dandelion is an example of a plant that reproduces by apomixis.
- The third advantage is the increase in yields. Indeed, yields explode when you make selections from distinct parents that have very different genes or alleles.
According to Agfunder