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Is plant variety registration keeping pace with speed breeding techniques?

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Abstract

Recent innovations in breeding technologies have reduced the timeframe to develop improved plant varieties compared to conventional breeding processes. Technologies like speed breeding, or rapid generation advancement, may also accelerate the process of statutory variety registration. Within this procedure, improved varieties are required to satisfy distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS) criteria to establish the unique identity of a given submission during the variety registration process. The DUS standard also provides a solid basis for seed certification, plant breeders’ rights, as well as variety maintenance throughout commercial lifespan of varieties. Currently, the overall timeline of variety registration may vary from 2 to 4 years, depending on crop type and country. In this article, we propose the concept of ‘speed DUS testing’: a rapid phenotype-based method, which could be integrated with approaches that take advantage of DNA markers. We compare methods and discuss how DUS testing could be modernized to fast-track variety registration.

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Notes

  1. European Directive 70/457/EC (1970), revised in 2002 (2002/53/EC).

  2. Crop Variety Registration in Canada, Issues and Options, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, 2013, http://canada-usgrainandseedtrade.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/vr-ev_option-en.pdf.

  3. http://www.upov.int/test_guidelines/en.

  4. Sugar beet, Beta vulgaris L., Inclusion in Dutch register of varieties, https://www.naktuinbouw.com/agriculture/variety-description/sugar-beet-beta-vulgaris-l.

  5. How to apply for national listing of agricultural and vegetable plant varieties in the UK, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, the UK, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-lists-of-agricultural-and-vegetable-crops.

  6. Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Plants with novel traits: Information for the general public, http://www.inspection.gc.ca/plants/plants-with-novel-traits/general-public/eng/1337380923340/1337384231869.

Abbreviations

DUS:

Distinctness, uniformity and stability

PBR:

Plant breeder’s rights

VCU:

Value for cultivation and use

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Margaret Wallace, senior technical manager at NIAB, UK, for her comments to improve this article. JC’s time was supported by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Grants BB/L011700/1 and BB/M011666/1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Melbourne, Australia

    Seyed Hossein Jamali

  2. The John Bingham Laboratory, NIAB, Cambridge, CB3 0LE, UK

    James Cockram

  3. Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Lee T. Hickey

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  1. Seyed Hossein Jamali
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SHJ proposed the idea for the article, performed the literature search and drafted the work. JC and LTH critically revised the work. All authors approved the final version.

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Correspondence to Seyed Hossein Jamali.

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Jamali, S.H., Cockram, J. & Hickey, L.T. Is plant variety registration keeping pace with speed breeding techniques?. Euphytica 216, 131 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-020-02666-y

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