Principles and

Practices in Plant
Breeding

Angelie Rose L. Lumba

Director, Research and Development Services
Project In-charge- CPSU Seed Genebank
Ph.D. Agronomy
Crop Physiology and Plant Breeding
#09759549948
 Plant Breeding

• art, science and business of improving the

genetic make up of plants for the benefit of
mankind
➢ as an art – requires skill in selecting plants with excellent
characters (an eye for selection); started when man started
domestication
➢ as a science - based on theoretical and empirical body of
knowledge e.g. genetics, biochemistry, physiology, taxonomy,
statistics, etc. (for genetics, after the discovery of Mendel’s law
of inheritance
➢ as a business - requires an investment in people, money and
time
• generates employment
• contributes to farmer’s income
• provide income to breeder
• P = G X E X (GXE)
• P – Phenotype – physical appearance or
attributes of the plant
• G – genotype – genes – DNA - heritable
• E – environment – Conditions, nutrients,
management
• GXE - interaction between the Genes and
the environment
The plant breeder
• based on the International Union for the Protection of
New Varieties (UPOV) Convention
> a person who bred, or discovered
and developed a variety (a “person” can be
a group of people working as a team)
> a person who is the employer
(public or private institution/company) of
the above person/s or who commissioned
the latter’s work
> the successor in the title of the first
and second items as mentioned above.
Requirements for a good plant
breeder:
• understanding of genetics and breeding
strategies of target crop as well as its related
sciences;
• a creative mind for visualizing a target product
and eye for selection;
• a vision for future market products and
demands; and
• an open mind to new ideas and technologies.
CRISPR CAS 9 – tool or methods used in gene
editing
 Overview of the basic steps
in plant breeding

2 Categories Of Plant Breeding Approaches

A. Conventional approach – traditional or
classical breeding.
- entails the use of tried, proven, and older tools.
B. Unconventional approach
- entails the use of cutting edge technologies for
creating new variability that it is sometimes impossible
to achieve with conventional methods.
- this approach involved and requiring special technical
skills and knowledge. It is also expensive to conduct.
• B. Unconventional approach
• advent of recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology
• Gene transfer can now be made across natural
biological barriers, circumventing the sexual
process (e.g., the Bt products that consist of
bacterial genes transferred into crops to confer
resistance to the European corn borer).
• Molecular markers are available to aid the
selection process to make the process more
efficient and effective.
 Strategies of plant breeding:

• to identify the desired morphological and

physiological traits in a cultivated plant;
• • to search out new genes that encode for the
desired traits;
• to combine genes for the desired traits into an
improved variety/cultivar;
• to assess the performance of the improved
breeding population; and
• to distribute as new variety/cultivar/breeding lines
superior to currently grown variety/cultivars.
 General procedure involved
in a breeding program

1. Setting the breeding objectives

• increased productivity/high yield
• resistance to pests
• tolerance to environmental stresses
• good morphological characteristics
• improved nutrition, etc
The breeder need to consider the ff:
1. The Producer (grower) from the point of view of growing the
cultivar profitably.
2. The processor (industrial user)
3. The consumer (household user) preference (e.g., taste,
high nutritional quality, shelf life).
 General procedure involved
in a breeding program

2. Increasing genetic variability in

breeding/parental materials
• assembly and maintenance of germplasm
(genetic building blocks) (by crossing the selected parents)
• mutation induction
* biotechnological techniques
3. Breeding proper/variety development
• which materials to use and why?
* mean performance
* genetic variability
 General procedure involved
in a breeding program

• which breeding(s) method to adopt?

* mode of reproduction of the crop
* type of gene action for the trait
• which method(s) of selection to use
* gene action or mode of inheritance of trait
*mode of reproduction of the crop
4. Variety testing and release
5. Seed production and commercialization
 Objectives

Germplasm

Selection

Evaluation

Certification and
Cultivar Release
Factors that influence breeding
objectives and strategies:
Factors that influence breeding
objectives and strategies:

• 2. decreasing amount of arable land (urbanization

and housing needs and other land uses);
• 3. decreasing number of people engaged in
agriculture (ageing of the labor force);
• 4. abiotic environment (shifting of global climate);
• drought occurrence
• flooding/flash floods
• higher temperature
• soil acidity/salinity
5. biotic environment (new pests);
Factors that influence breeding
objectives and strategies:
 Factors that influence breeding
objectives and strategies:

• 7. advances in information technology

• Data management and information
sharing
data bases of DNA sequences of various
genes and genomes had been made
data base of genealogy of varieties of
crops (ex. IR 36 from IRRI)
Factors that influence breeding
objectives and strategies:

8. Increasing private investment in agricultural

research
• public investment in plant breeding is decreasing
over time;
• number of private seed/breeding company is
increasing as well consolidation for better efficiency
• private sector is heavily investing resources in
developing new molecular technologies and varieties
Factors that influence breeding
objectives and strategies:

9. intellectual property environment

• Patent: old system of intellectual property
protection (IPP) e.g. copyright and trademarks. It refers
to right granted to process, machine or inventions based
on newness, utility, non-obviousness, etc.
• Sui generis: IPP that do not meet the criteria
of the old system. It means “of its kind” or
“unique in its characteristics”. In general, a new
variety is granted protection if it is commercially new,
distinct, uniform and stable.
 Factors that influence breeding
objectives and strategies:

• 9. intellectual property environment

• Philippine PVP is based on UPOV Convention
(International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of plant),
an intergovernmental organization of 65 countries
• provides sui generis system of plant variety protection
with minimum scope of protection and guidelines for
distinctness, uniformity and stability.
• for countries where PBRs are UPOV compliant,
protected varieties can be used for breeding purposes. • for
patented varieties, approval of the owner is required for use in
research by other breeders.
 Factors that influence breeding
objectives and strategies:

9. intellectual property environment

• access to germplasm e.g. traditional varieties and wild
relatives in CGIAR-institution is governed by International Treaty on
Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Material
Transfer Agreement)
• this treaty is for the conservation and sustainable use of
plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA).
• multilateral system of germplasm access and benefit
sharing arising from the utilization of these resources and seed
recipient shall not claim any IPR on the material per se and its
component
Factors that influence breeding
objectives and strategies:

9. intellectual property environment

• access and benefit sharing not covered by
the treaty is governed by the Convention of
Biological Diversity (CBD) of the UNEP, which also
governs non-plant biological resources
• country source of the biological resources
has a sovereign rights over the materials
• sharing of materials could involve
partnership between public and private sectors or
within the private sectors,
 Factors that influence breeding
objectives and strategies:

10. increasing role of farmers in R&D for

marginal environments
• for private sector initiative, focus on favorable
environment where farmers have more resources to
purchase seeds
• for public sector, marginal environment
• farmer participatory approach for trial and
selection for adoption of the developed varieties
Factors that influence breeding
objectives and strategies:
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