History of plant breeding

1. HISTORY OF
PLANT BREEDING
PRESENTED BY: Pawan
Nagar
Reg. no.: 04-2690-2015
M.Sc.(Fruit Science)

2. HISTORY OF PLANT BREEDING
In broad sense history of plant breeding can be divided into
Four parts
1. Pre Mendelian era:- before 1900.
2. Mendelian era:- 1900 to 1920.
3. Post Mendelian era:- 1921 to 1950.
4. Modern era:- after 1950.

3. 1. PRE MENDELIAN ERA:-
The process of bringing a wild species under human management is
referred to as Domestication.
 9000 B.C.: First evidence of plant domestication in the hills above the
Tigris River.
 3000 B.C.: Domestication of all important food crops in the Old World
completed.
 1000 B.C.: Domestication of all important food crops in the New World
completed.
 700 B.C.: Babylonians and Assyrians hand pollinate date palm
artificially.
 1665: Robert Hooke(England): First described the cell and known as
father of cell biology.
 1694: Camerarius of Germany first to demonstrate sex in plants and
suggested crossing as a method to obtain new plant types.

4. CONTINUE…..
 1717: Thomas Fairchild: Developed first Inter specific hybrid
between sweet William and Carnation Species of Dianthus
popularly known as Fair Child’s mule.
 1727: The first plant breeding company was established in
France by the vilmorins and introduced the pedigree method
of breeding.
 1753: Linnaeus published “Species planetarium”. Binomial
nomenclature of plant taxonomy officially begins with his
general list of plant species.
 1766: Joseph Koelreuter of Germany demonstrated that
hybrid offspring received traits from both parents and were
intermediate in most traits observed and produced first
scientific hybrid using tobacco.

5. CONTINUE…..
 1800-1835: Knight T.A (English): First used Artificial Hybridization
in Fruit Crops.
 1819: Shirreff: Utilized pure line selection to develop a new oat
cultivar (Released in 1824), and a new wheat cultivar (Released in
1832).
 1823: Knight: Dominance, Recessiveness, and segregation
observed in peas.
 1840: John Le Couteur: They developed the concept of progeny
test and individual plant selection in cereals.
 1840-50: De Vilmorin (French Biologist): : progeny test in wheat,
oat, and sugar-beet breeding.
 1856: De Vilmorin: Further elaborated the concept of progeny test
and used same in Sugarbeet.
 1859-89: Darwin: Published “Origin of species”, and noted
inbreeding sterility and differences in reciprocal crosses.

6. CONTINUE…..
 1866: Mendel G.J (Austria): published his discoveries in
“Experiments in plant hybridization”, cumulating in the
formulation of laws of inheritance in garden pea and
discovery of unit factors (genes).
 1873: The work of Patrick Shireff was first published and He
concluded that only the variation heritable nature responded
to selections, and that there variation arose through ‘natural
sports’ (= mutation) and by ‘natural hybridization’
(recombination during meiosis in the hybrids so produced).
 1890: Rimpu (Sweden): First made inheritance cross
between bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) and rye (Secale
cereale), which later on gave birth to triticale.

7. 2. MENDELIAN ERA:-
 1900: De Varies (Holland) Correns (Germany) Tschermak
(Austria) Rediscovered Mendel laws of inheritance
independently.
 1900: Nilson, H (Swedish): Elaborated individual plant
selection method in Sweden.
 1903: Johannsen W.L: proposed the pureline theory that
provided the genetic basis for Individual plant selection and
also coined the terms Genotype, Phenotype and Pureline.
 1908–1909: Hardy of England and Weinberg of Germany
developed the law of equilibrium of populations.
 1908: Devenport, C.B: First proposed dominance
hypothesis of heterosis.

8. CONTINUE…
.
 1908: Shull, G.H (US) East, E.M (US) proposed over dominance
hypothesis independently working with maize.
 1909: Shull conducted extensive research to develop inbreds to
produce hybrids use of F1 hybrids between inbreds in corn breeding.
 1909: Nilsson-Ehle: Given the explanation of multiple factor hypothesis
for Grain colour of Wheat by using a Pedigree breeding and Bulk
breeding.
 1910: Bruce, A.B. keable, F. and Pellew, C. Elaborated the dominance
hypothesis of heterosis proposed by davenport.
 1914: Shull, G.H: First used the term heterosis for hybrid vigour.

9. CONTINUE….
 1917: Jones developed first commercial hybrid maize and
proposed dominance of linked gene hypothesis.
 1919: Hays, H.K. Garber, R.J Gave initial idea about
recurrent selection. They first suggested use of synthetic
varieties for commercial cultivation in maize.

10. 3. POST MENDELIAN ERA:-
 1923: Sax: linkage between quantitative and qualitative traits in
beans.
 1926: East, E.M and Mangelsdorf, A.J: First discovered
gametophytic system of self incompatibility in Nicotiana
sanderae.
 1926: Pioneer Hi-bred Corn Company established as first Seed
Company.
 1926: Vavilov, N.I: Identified 8 main centers and 3 sub centers of
crop diversity. He also developed concept of parallel series of
variation or law of homologous series of variation.
 1927: Muller produced mutations in fruit flies using x-rays.
 1927: Karpencheko developed first intergeneric hybrid between
Radish and Cabbage in Russia.
 1928: Stadler, L.J (US): First used X-rays for induction of
mutations in barley.

11. CONTINUE…..
 1933: Rhoades: Discovered cytoplasmic male sterility in
Maize.
 1934: Dustin discovered colchicines.
 1935: Vavilov published the scientific basis of plant
breeding.
 1935: Nagahern proposed the origin of tetraploid species of
Brassica using a triangle.
 1936: East, E.M: Supported over dominance hypothesis of
heterosis proposed by East and Shull in 1908.
 1939: Goulden, C.H: First suggested the use of single seed
descent method for advancing segregating generations of
self pollinating crops.
 1940: Jenkins, M.T: Described the procedure of recurrent
selection.

12. CONTINUE….
.
 1944: Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty: Described the
transforming principle and suggested that DNA, not
protein, is the hereditary material.
 1945: Hull, F.H: Coined the terms recurrent selection and
overdominance working with maize.
 1950: Hughes and Babcock: First discovered sporophytic
system of self incompatibility in Crepis foetida.
 1950: McClintock discovered the Ac-Ds system of
transposable elements.

13. 4. MODERN ERA:-
 1952: Jensen, N.F: First suggested the use of multi lines
in oats.
 1953: Borlaug, N.E: First outlined the method of
developing multilines in Wheat.
 1953: Watson, Crick, and Wilkins proposed a model for
Double Helical Structure of DNA.
 1956: Flor: gene for gene hypothesis for host-parasite
resistance.
 1964: Borlaug, N.E: Developed high yielding semi dwarf
varieties of wheat which resulted in green revolution.
 1965: Graphius, J.E: First applied Single Seed Descent
(SSD) method in oats.
 1968: Donald: Developed the concept of crop ideotype in
wheat.

14. CONTINUE…..
 1970: Patel, C.T: Developed world’s first cotton hybrid for
commercial cultivation in India.
 1970: Borlaug received Nobel Prize for the Green
Revolution
 1970: Berg, Cohen, and Boyer introduced the
Recombinant DNA technology.
 1976: Yuan Long Ping et al: Developed world’s first rice
hybrid (CMS based) for commercial cultivation in China.
 1983: Fraley et al.: Development of first transgenic
(Genetically engineered) plant tobacco in USA.
 1987: Monsanto: Developed world’s transgenic cotton plant
in USA.
 1991: ICRISAT: Developed world’s first pigeon pea hybrid
(ICPH 8) (GMS based) for commercial cultivation in India.

15. CONTINUE…..
 1994: “FlavrSavr” tomato developed as first genetically modified
food produced for the market by calgene company of California.
 1995: Bt corn developed.
 1996: Glyphosate Resistant Crop® soybean introduced.
 1997: Monsanto, USA: First identified terminator gene, which
allows germination of seed for one generation only.
 1908: Monsanto, USA: Identification of traitor gene, which
responds to specific brand of fertilizers and insecticides.
 2001:Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act
(PPVFRA).
 2002:Mahyco-Monsanto: Released three Bt Hybrids (MECH12,
MECH16, MECH 184).
 2004: Glyphosate Resistant Crop® wheat developed.
 2005: Govt. of India: Approved cultivation of some Bt cotton
hybrids in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

16. INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND HISTORY
OF PLANT BREEDING IN INDIA
 1871: The Government of India created the Department of
Agriculture.
 1892: First scientist appointed in the Department. He was
agricultural chemist.
 1901-05: Agricultural Colleges were established at Kanpur,
Pune, Sabour, Llyalpur, Coimbatore.
 1905: The Imperial Agricultural Research Institute was
established in Pusa, Bihar.
 1934: The buildings of the institute damaged in earthquake.
 1936: Shifted to New Delhi.
 1946: Name was changed Indian Agricultural Research
Institute.

17. CONTINUE….
.
 1929: Imperial council of Agricultural Research was established in
New Delhi.
 1946: Name was change to Indian Council Agricultural Research.
 1921: Indian Central Cotton Committee was established Notable
researches on Breeding and cultivation of cotton. E.g.: 70 improved
varieties of cotton.
 1956: Project for intensification of regional research on cotton,
oilseeds and millets (PIRRCOM) was initiated to intensify research
on these crops located at 17 Different centres throughout the
country.
 1957: All India Coordinated maize improvement project was started
with objective of exploiting heterosis.
 1960: First Agricultural University established at Pantnagar,
Nainital, U.P.
 1961: The first hybrid maize varieties released by the project. ICAR
initiated Coordinated projects for improvement of the other crops.

18. CONTINUE….
.
 1961: First Maize hybrid was released (Ganga1,
Ganga101, Deccan and Ranjit).
 1964: First Sorghum Hybrid (CSH-1) was released.
 1965: First Bajra hybrid (HB-1) was released.
 1971: One of the pioneer centre for research in India TNAU
was established.
 1991: First pigeon pea hybrid (ICPH-8) was released from
ICRISAT(Six Mandate Crop are Pearl millet, Sorghum,
Pigeon pea, Chickpea, Finger millet, Groundnut),
Hyderabad.

19. SOME INDIAN PLANT BREEDER
Sr No. Scientists Contribution
1 T.S.
Venkatraman
An eminent sugarcane breeder, he transferred thick
stem and high sugar contents from tropical noble
cane (Saccharum officinanum) to North Indian Canes
(Saccharum barberi). This process is known as
Noblization of sugarcane.
2 B.P. Pal An eminent Wheat breeder, developed superior
disease resistant varieties of wheat and also first
director general of ICAR.
3 M.S.
Swaminathan
Responsible for green revolution in India, developed
high yielding dwarf varieties of Wheat and Rice.
4 Pushkarnath A Famous potato breeder who developed several
high yielding varieties of potato. He was the Director
of CPRI, Shimala.

20. SOME INDIAN PLANT BREEDER
Sr No. Scientists Contribution
5 N.G.P. Rao An eminent sorghum breeder who developed the
world’s first hybrid of sorghum(CSH-1).
6 K. Ramaiah A renowned rice breeder. He developed several high
yielding varieties of rice when he was the Director of
CRRI, Cuttack.
7 K. Athwal Famous pearlmillet breeder. He worked in PAU,
Ludhiana and developed several superior varieties.
8 Bosisen An eminent maize breeder. He Developed several
varieties of maize for Hill region of Uttranchal
9 Dharampal Singh An eminent oil-seed breeder. He released several
varieties of oil-seeds(Rapeseed and Mustard) from
Kanpur.
10 C.T. Patel Famous cotton breeder who developed world’s first
cotton hybrid(H-4) in 1970 known as FATHER of
Hybrid Cotton.
11 V. Santhanam Famous cotton breeder.