Breeding More Crops in Less Time: A Perspective on Speed Breeding

Area of Science:

• Plant Science
• Agricultural Science
• Genetics

Background:

• Conventional crop breeding is time-consuming, requiring significant resources for plant selection and crossing.
• The seed-to-seed cycle duration is a major limitation in plant research and breeding progress.
• Speed breeding (SB) offers a solution by accelerating plant improvement cycles.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review diverse speed breeding methodologies and their applications in accelerating plant improvement.
• To highlight the integration of SB protocols with various research objectives like genomic selection and phenotyping.
• To discuss the challenges and limitations hindering the widespread adoption of SB across different crops.

Main Methods:

• Speed breeding utilizes controlled environmental conditions, including photoperiod extension and temperature control.
• Protocols are adapted for both long-day and short-day plants to minimize generation interval time.
• SB integrates with diverse research purposes such as population development, genomic selection, phenotyping, and genomic editing.

Main Results:

• SB has demonstrated success in accelerating plant research and breeding, particularly for long-day plants.
• The flexibility of SB protocols allows integration with advanced breeding techniques.
• SB facilitates rapid phenotyping and pyramiding of multiple traits for developing new crop varieties.

Conclusions:

• Speed breeding significantly reduces the time required for crop improvement, addressing a key bottleneck in plant science.
• Further optimization and integration of SB protocols are crucial for its widespread application in food crop breeding pipelines.
• Overcoming current limitations will enhance the efficiency of developing improved crop varieties through accelerated breeding programs.