WHEAT FUTURE IS IN BIO-TECH NOT GM — BREEDER
Farmers Weekly 25 February 2000 (Arable Focus Supplement)
By Charles Abel
BIOTECHNOLOGY rather than
genetic modification is the key to
improving wheat varieties, says
Monsanto. Although GM tech-
niques may develop some traits,
most will stem from conventional
breeding backed by sophisticated
biotech tools.
Biotech to aid conventional
wheat breeding is already attract-
ing 10 to 20 times more effort than
the genetic transformation of the
crop, says US-based Tom Crosbie,
Monsanto's global head of plant
breeding.
"Genetic transformation is
just one particular wrench in the
biotechnology tool box. We have
lots of other tools to accelerate the
development of new wheat vari-
eties," he says.
Unlike some crops, most of the
genetic material needed to create
better wheats is already available
in existing varieties and close wild
relatives. The trick is to move
desired traits into new varieties
more rapidly and more accurately.
That is where biotech helps.
Genetic transformation can only
be used to introduce one segment
of novel genetic material to a
variety at a time, but biotech
tools can be used to enhance a
host of existing traits. "It's a
numbers game and ultimately
non-transformation biotech offers
the greatest potential."
Monsanto now has the best
wheat breeding material in the
world Mr Crosbie claims.
Biotech methods such as gene
mapping and molecular markers
will transform conventional breed-
ing, effectively turning the lights on
where breeders previously worked
in the dark, Mr Crosbie adds.
"Aligning 20 segments of
desired genetic material using
conventional breeding would take
a one-in-a-trillion chance. Using
molecular markers we can achieve
it in three cycles."
Some wheat varieties entering
UK national list trials benefited
from tagging. In future, mapping
and tagging could help improve
yield factors and resistance to
BYDV and yellow rust.
But GM techniques could still
have a role, he says. The protract-
ed flowering period for hybrid
wheats renders them particularly
susceptible to fusarium, resistance
for which has already been intro-
duced into Canadian spring wheat
using GM. GM could be the key
to successful hybrid wheats.