LWV23051 A novel approach to determine the optimal light conditions for speed breeding (TS-02-227-024)

Crop yield loss due to prolonged drought or plant diseases poses a significant threat to food security. To address this, breeding efforts focus on developing new elite cultivars with enhanced disease resistance and drought resilience. However, the breeding process is time-consuming due to numerous (back-)crosses, which delays progress. The speed of breeding is largely influenced by the crop's life cycle duration, particularly the timing of the transition to flowering, which is affected by environmental factors like light and temperature.

This project aims to develop a Speed-breeding protocol using a knowledge-driven approach to shorten the plant life cycle by optimizing light conditions. The concept will be tested on lettuce, onion, and oilseed rape. Initially, key flowering genes will be identified, and their expression levels will be studied under known flower-inducing conditions. These expression profiles will be linked to the timing of the floral transition, determined early using a binocular microscope before visible flowering.

A basic model describing the relationship between gene expression and the timing of the floral transition will be generated. This quantitative model will predict the plant's progress in the flowering transition process, surpassing the current simple digital assay of visual observation of floral bud appearance. Plants will then be exposed to various specific light regimes, and sensor gene expression will be monitored to develop a crop-specific fast flowering recipe.

The fast flower transition monitoring assay will identify or predict light conditions that maximize the flowering transition speed while minimizing negative effects on seed yield and quality. Temperature conditions will also be considered in the crop-specific flowering transition models. Besides achieving fast flowering for speed-breeding, the developed model can synchronize flowering, which is crucial for efficient breeding. The project aims to create widely applicable technology for formulating crop-specific instructions to induce flowering for speed-breeding.