Project
LWV23051 A novel approach to determine the optimal light conditions for speed breeding
Crop yield loss due to prolonged drought or plant diseases is a serious problem that threatens food security. Therefore, breeding efforts focus on the development of new elite cultivars with better disease resistance and drought resilience. However, breeding these cultivars takes a lot of time, because there are many (back-)crosses involved, which holds back progress in the generation of these cultivars. The speed of breeding largely depends on the duration of the crop’s life cycle, which is strongly determined by the timing of the transition to flowering. This transition depends on various environmental factors, of which light and temperature are the most important ones. Even though research provided detailed insight into the genetic networks and physiological factors that control flowering time, attempts to accelerate flowering by adjusting environmental conditions are often based on trial and error.
In this project we aim to develop a Speed-breeding protocol based on a knowledge-driven approach and to shorten the life cycle of plants by optimisation of the light conditions. The concept will be tested in this project for lettuce, onion, and oilseed rape. First, we will identify a set of key flowering genes of which the expression levels will be investigated in detail under known flower-inducing conditions.
Subsequently, the expression profiles of these sensor genes will be linked to the timing of the floral transition, which will be determined at an early stage using the binocular microscope, before flowering is visible to the naked eye. Using these precise data, a basic model describing the relationship between gene expression and the timing of the floral transition will be generated. We aim for a quantitative model that predicts how far a plant is in the flowering transition process, which is much more advanced than the currently used simple digital assay of visual observation of floral bud appearance. In the next step, plants will be exposed to various specific light regimes, and expression of the sensor genes will be monitored to develop a crop-specific fast flowering recipe. The developed fast flower transition monitoring assay will enable the identification or prediction of the light conditions that can maximally speed up the flowering transition in a particular crop while minimizing negative side effects on seed yield and quality.
Subsequently, the temperature conditions will also be taken into account in the crop-specific flowering transition models. Besides obtaining fast flowering for speed-breeding, the developed model can also be used for synchronisation of flowering, which is also important for efficient breeding. In conclusion, we plan to explore and develop a widely applicable technology, to formulate crop-specific instructions to induce flowering for speed-breeding.