The Hindu Business Line : Scientists achieve breakthrough in plant breeding

Hyderabad, Feb. 14 In a step that can augur well for the food crops, a team of scientists at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) here has identified a gene in plants that can lead to produce plants equivalents to hybrids in productivity.

The research findings of Dr Imran Siddiqi and his students Mr Maruthachalam Ravi and Mr Mohan in this regard have been published online by the Science journal Nature and can stimulate further research across the world, Dr Lalji Singh, Director, CCMB told newspersons here on Thursday.

High-yielding plant hybrids (or seeds) are currently being obtained by crossing two parents. They inherit multiple genes from both the parents. But the seeds would not be able to maintain high yield in successive generations forcing the farmers to buy seeds for every crop.

Dr Siddiqi and his team have been working for the last ten years on Apomixis, which is the formation of asexual seeds that retain all set of genes in the parent cell. In a hybrid seed, this would mean passing of high yielding genes to the next generation without any change.

If Apomixis could be applied fully in food crops or plant breeding, it would help in reducing cost of hybrid seed production, successive propagation of hybrid seeds and accelerated breeding, he added.

“We have identified a gene (named Dyad) in a model mustard plant called Arabidopsis, which shows reduced female fertility. In practical terms, this means a molecular handle to re-engineer a major functional component in modification of female meiosis,” Dr Siddiqi said.

However, another half of the research on the development of the egg cell into an embryo without fertilisation is yet to be done to apply the technique to food crops.

“This is a first significant step and we could break it for the first time in the world,” he said, adding that a patent had been filed by the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on the finding.

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