Length of generation time is key hurdle in development of new variety. Speed breeding reduce generation time and make available new varieties earlier to feed billions of population.

1. 1
DEPARTMENT OF GENETIC AND PLANT
BREEDING
GP-691 (Doctoral Seminar-I)
Speaker:
Siddhanath A. Shendekar
PhD/2020/11
Research Guide:
Dr. N. S. Kute
Principal Scientist
Pulses Improvement Project
SPEED BREEDING - “A RAPID METHOD FOR
DEVELOPMENT OF NEW VARIETIES”

2. Points to be discussed
2
Earlier approaches to hasten breeding cycles
Speed breeding: As a concept
Speed breeding: As a powerful tool in breeding
Case studies
Conclusions

3. 3
Source-IPCC Report 2020-21
Feeding to 7.9
billion population
is that much
easy?
Need to develop varieties which fulfill needs of growing
population, as well as climate resilient genetic material?
Climate change is
the greatest threat to
our existence

4. 4
Earlier approaches to hasten breeding
cycles

5. https://www.seedquest.com/forum/b/BorlaugNorman/shuttlebreeding.htm
• Objective of speeding the
process by growing two
successive plantings per year.
• The shuttle-breeding process
yielded a double bonus. First, as
Norman had predicted, they
were able to advance the
generations twice as fast.
• The second results in plants that
survived and performed well at
both locations were now well
adapted to a wide range of
conditions.
5
Shuttle breeding: Borlaug’s breeding innovation

6. • Generated directly from pollen or egg cells, subsequently chromosome
doubling to restore fertility and the normal diploid chromosome number.
• In doubled haploids, that genetic variation is fixed in one step by
chromosome doubling, and the plant becomes 100 per cent true
breeding or homozygous.
• Limitations can be the production of large enough numbers for practical
plant breeding purposes and varieties differ markedly for tissue culture
response.
6
Double haploids technology (DH)

7. 7
This is how double haploids works…

8. Line
development
(5-10 years)
Field testing
(3-5 years)
Release
(1-3 years)
Line
development
(2 years)
Field testing
(3-5 years)
Release
(1-3 years)
Speed breeding targets here
8
Current development pipeline for new cultivars

9. 9
ΔG = (σa)(i)(r)
L
Where, σa is additive variance, i is selection intensity, r is selection accuracy and
L is length of breeding cycle interval or generation.
The exponential
increase in genetic
gain would be possible
by manipulating time
factor
Enhanced rate of genetic gain

10. 10
You just imagine as plant breeder !!!

11. 11
https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/nasas-space-wheat-inspires-faster-breeding-on-earth/
NASA’s approach of space breeding

12. Dr. Brande wulff
Project leader, crop genetics
John innes centre, UK
Dr Lee Hickey
Associate Professor
University of Queensland
http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-01-02/nasa-inspires-plant-speed-breeding-program 12
Drivers of “Speed breeding” vehicle

13.  Need for speed??
• “Globally, we face huge challenge in breeding
high yielding and more resilient crops. Being able
to cycle through more generations in less time,
will allow us to more rapidly create and test
genetic combinations and find the best
combinations for different environment.”
- (Dr. B Wulff)
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180101144758.htm
13
Speed breeding: Sows seeds of new green revolution
Speed breeding technology got great welcome!!!
Dr. Hickey said, "Over the last 12 months, we've received an
overwhelming, ridiculous number of requests for our protocols of
speed breeding from scientists and plant breeders from more than 23
countries from around the world.

14.  Use of prolonged photoperiods to accelerate development
rate of plants and the harvesting and germination of
immature seeds, thereby reducing generation time. (Watson
et al., 2018).
 It relies on intense lighting regimes to raise crops several
times faster and boost their health at the same time.
 Uses a glasshouse or an artificial environment with
enhanced lightning to create intense day-long regimes to
speed up the search for better promising crops.
14
Speed breeding : As a concept

15. 15
Long day plants- A plant that flowers only after being exposed to light
periods longer than a certain critical length. Ex: Wheat, Barley,
Spinach, lettuce etc.
Day neutral plants- A plant that flowers regardless of the amount of
light of daylight it receives.
Ex: Groundnut, Tomatoes, Sunflower etc.
Short day plants- A plant that requires a long period of darkness
and forms flowers only when day length is less than about 12 hours.
Ex: Rice, Maize, Cotton, Amaranth etc.
Photoperiod Response in Crops

16. 16
Watson et al., 2018
Speed breeding accelerates generation time!!!

17. 17
Chiurugwi et al. 2018
Cont.…

18. In partnership with Dow Agro Sciences, they have developed the new
‘DS Faraday’ wheat variety with high protein, milling wheat and
tolerance to pre-harvest sprouting.
18
Achieved through repeated cycles of
selection for grain dormancy and
backcrossing.
First wheat variety developed using Speed breeding
On field germination

19. Watson et al., 2018 19
2018

20. • A conviron BDW chamber
• Temperature: 22 oC during photoperiod of 22 hrs and 17oC
during 2 hours of dark period
• Humidity: 70 %
• Lighting: Mixture of white LED bars, far-red LED lamps
and ceramic metal hydrargyrum quartz iodine lamps
• Light intensity was adjusted to 360-380 umol m-2s-1
Watson et al., 2018
20
Speed breeding I- Controlled environment chamber

21. Watson et al., 2018
Wheat (38 DAS) Barley (41 DAS) Brachypodium
(36 DAS)
21
Anthesis in approximately half the time than those in greenhouse

22. Watson et al., 2018
22
Plants produced healthy number of spikes per plant,
despite of rapid growth

23. Watson et al., 2018
23
Viability of harvested seeds unaffected by speed breeding

24. Watson et al., 2018
24
Crosses made between wheat cultivars under speed
breeding condition produce viable seeds

25. Watson et al., 2018
 A temperature controlled glasshouse fitted with high pressure
sodium vapour lamps (22 hours photoperiod).
 Temperature: 17/22 oC regime with 12 hours turnover.
 Light intensity was set to 440-650 umol m-2s-1
 The two hours period without lamps operating and 17 oC cycle
occurred during night.
25
Speed breeding II- Glasshouse speed breeding conditions

26. Spectral measurement of light composition for Philips SON-T 400 W sodium vapour lamps.
Watson et al., 2018
26

27.  Wheat plants produced significantly more spikes than in day
neutral condition.
 Grain number was unaffected by the rapid development in
wheat and barley
 Seed viability was either unaffected or improved compared
to day neutral conditions
 Seed production (g per plant) of canola and chickpea was
similar.
Watson et al., 2018 27
Outcomes of speed breeding-II

28. • Plants are grown at higher density in 100 cell tray under speed
breeding and glasshouse condition.
• The equated density of approximately 900 plants per m2
• Generation time was shorter than for plants grown at lower
density in previous speed breeding experiments.
• Higher density may caused stress or plant competition, lead
to hasten flowering.
Watson et al., 2018 28
Integrating speed breeding and SSD technique

29. Watson et al., 2018 29
Fig. Generation time and yield measurements of wheat (cv. Westonia) grown in 100-
cell trays
Fig. Generation time and yield measurements of barley (cv.Commander) grown in
100-cell trays
Contd.

30. Particulars Amount
RGA Glasshouse facility 35,00000
Invertor with battery 130000
Light facility 20000
Other hardwaere 50000
Setup cost 50000
Total 3750000
30
Cost incurred to setup speed breeding facility

31. 31
Case study 1
2020
• Objectives
 To optimize growth conditions for early flowering and good seed set.
 To identify the earliest stage at which seeds can germinate after flower
formation.
 To estimate the length of each generation cycle and the number of
generations that can be advanced in a year under glasshouse conditions.

32. 32
Materials and methods
Maturity group Accession
Early JG 11
JG 14
Medium ICCV 10
JG 16
Late C 235
CDC frontier
CDC-Frontier is a kabuli-type chickpea variety
released by Crop Development Centre,
University of Saskatchewan
Glasshouse fitted with standard
incandescent bulb
Maximum temperature : (25 ± 1) °C
Artificial light provided between 18:00 pm
to 6:00 am.

33. 33
To identify the earliest stage of immature seed germination
Seed aged 21 days after tagging of flowers was the earliest that could germinate
across all genotype.
The mean age of immature seed suitable for germination was 20 days in early-maturing,
20–22 days in medium maturing, and 21–25 days in late-maturing accessions in the two
growing seasons.

34. 34
Maturity
group
Accession RG
Early JG 11 43-58
JG 14 47-58
Medium ICCV 10 44-64
JG 16 51-67
Late C 235 52-79
CDC
frontier
53-112
RG denotes rapid generation cycle
The overall mean generation times were 50.0 (2014–2015)to 52.7 days (2015–2016) in early-maturing
accessions and 58.6 (2014–2015) to 55.4 days (2015–2016) in medium-maturing accessions.
Length of generation
cycle
To estimate the length of each generation cycle and the number of
generations per year

35. 35
Key findings
All accessions (except CDC-Frontier) responded positively and the earliest stage of
seed capable of germination varied between 1 and 4 days among accessions,
irrespective of maturity type.
This finding indicates that the method would work with a wide range of chickpea
accessions in diverse maturity groups.
Results shows that 7.0, 6.2, and 6.0 generations per year are possible for early-,
medium-, and late-maturing chickpea accessions.
This protocol does not require application of chemicals or hormone treatment of
seeds or growing plants at different stages.

36. 36
Case study 2
• Objective
 Rapidly transfer multiple disease resistance into the Scarlett genetic background
which has better malting quality but susceptible to multiple diseases
2017

37. 37
NRB090683-1
NRB091033
NRB091087
NRB091092
Scarlet
Materials and methods
Donor parents
Recurrent parent
F1 and BC1F1 generations were grown under speed breeding condition
(temperature controlled glasshouse fitted with sodium vapour lamps. Constant
light and temperature 22 oC)

38. 16 DAS inoculation and 25 DAS scoring
• Plants were inoculated with net form of net blotch
(NFNB) and spot form of net blotch (SFNB) and
incubated in a dew chamber for 24 h.
27 DAS inoculation and 37 DAS scoring
• Plants were inoculated with spot blotch (SB) and
incubated in a dew chamber for 24 h.
47 DAS inoculation and 57 DAS scoring
• Plants were inoculated (stem elongation stage)
with leaf rust (LR) and incubated in a dew
chamber for 16 h.
38
Disease screening in F2 and BC1F2
Cont.…

39. 39
2 years
Rapid generation advancement

40. Net form of net blotch (NFNB)
 NRB090683-1 was susceptible to leaf rust,
net form net blotch and spot form of net
blotch
 NRB091087 was susceptible to spot blotch
 Scarlett displayed moderate level of
resistance to spot form of net blotch
40
Screening for multiple disease resistance in segregating populations
Summary of selection performed in segregating generations
Cont.…

41. Balcarce
Tres arroyos
41
Yield performance of elite introgression lines

42. 42
• Rapid generation advance to homozygosity following crossing will
facilitate genetic gain for key traits.
• Rapid production of improved cultivars.
• It gives more flexibility to breeders, as it is less susceptible to
adverse biotic and abiotic stresses.
• Suitable for smaller breeding programmes where land and labour
resources are limited.
• Ideally suited to backcross breeding strategy for oligogenes.
Advantages of Speed breeding

43. 43
Limitations of Speed breeding
• Considerable cost involved in maintaining the controlled
environments.
• One can handle few breeding populations.
• Intense multi trait selection pipeline under controlled
environment is difficult.

44. 44
Integration with other breeding technologies
• Speed breeding and high throughput phenotypic screen for
multiple target traits.
• Speed breeding and marker assisted selection: Applied to the
selected set following phenotypic selection.
• Speed breeding and association mapping: To track and confirm
the presence of target regions.
• Speed breeding and genomic selection: Pyramiding of multiple
traits and to enable selection for yield and grain quality traits.

45. 45
Future prospective
• Advance in LED light technologies, provides opportunity to optimize PAR and
customize the wavelength and intensity to suit different growth stages and plant
species.
• Speed breeding likely to reduce generation time for other crop species, such as
sunflower, pepper and radish which have been shown to respond well to
extended photoperiod.
• Direct application of speed breeding protocols to short-day species such as
maize or rice are unlikely to be successful.

46. 46

47. 47
Speed riding “kills” but speed breeding “thrills”!!