Project description
Evolving three-parent technology to improve crops and seed varieties
Changes in climate extremes (e.g. heatwaves, floods and drought) require new breeding technologies to allow farmers to achieve high yields with climate-robust crops. The EU-supported bi-BLOCK project discovered that plant egg cells can fuse with two sperm to produce offspring with three parents instead of two (one mother and two fathers). This is known as three-parent breeding technology. Together with the TriVolve project, the strategy was successfully transferred to sugar beet as an experimental crop prototype. In this context, the EU-funded 3P-Tec project will pave the way for the development of the 3P-Tec technology for further crop plants including potato. It will also advance the establishment of technologies that enhance the efficiency of obtaining three parent plants, and the commercial exploitation of 3P-Tec are aims of this project.
Objective
"Background: There is an urgent need for an agricultural revolution to generate climate-resilient cultivars, which combine proven traits with novel qualities adapting crop plants to climate extremes, including heat and drought. Novel breeding technologies can make the difference to enable farmers to achieve high yields with climate-robust crops to secure food supplies for the world's population.
Breakthrough technology: In the framework of the ERC Consolidator Grant ""bi-BLOCK"" we discovered that plant egg cells can fuse with two sperm producing offspring with three parents instead of two - one mother and two fathers - bypassing a hybridization barrier that is a major limitation for conventional plant breeding approaches. The three-parent breeding technology (3P-Tec) literally opens the way for exploiting beneficial traits of previously incompatible climate-adapted wild species. In the framework of the ERC Proof of Concept grant ""TriVolve"", we teamed up with one of the world's leading plant breeding companies (KWS Saat SE & Co. KGaA), and successfully transferred the strategy to sugar beet as an experimental crop prototype.
Objectives: The development of the 3P-Tec technology for further crop plants including potato, the establishment of technologies that enhance the efficiency of obtaining three parent plants, and the commercial exploitation of 3P-Tec are aims of this project. The project capitalizes on the breeding know-how, worldwide networks, and commercialization expertise of the breeders Aardevo and KWS.
Impact: 3P-Tec will revolutionize the ability of breeders to develop improved crops in providing a tool to mine beneficial gene variants of currently incompatible species and to substantially shorten time to market of climate-adapted seed varieties. It provides a novel breeding strategy with economic benefits expected to positively affect the social welfare of farmers as well as upstream and downstream industries related to the agricultural value chain.
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Fields of science
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-EIC - HORIZON EIC GrantsCoordinator
28359 Bremen
Germany