Diversity in Tomato

Transcripción

This video will look at the work of plant breeders over recent decades to provide a wide diversity and choice of tomato varieties. As a response to some concerns that varieties were becoming less diverse, we choose tomato because we have, a long history in tomato research. And moreover, there were concerns about genetic diversity, especially regarding tomato.
 
So we measured the diversity of the tomato cultivars at the DNA level by first collecting plant varieties, tomato varieties from the different decades the 50s, 60s, 70s, etc. until now. And then we isolated DNA and looked at the DNA, how much diversity there was between varieties. Within a decade. That was the first thing. The second thing is that we also looked at the fruit quality traits.
 
So we looked at sweetness, acidity, texture, juiciness, aromatic compounds. So how does it smell? And we evaluated that for each decade. The result was clear. Nowadays we have an eight fold increase compared to the 1960s. A looking at the DNA level to understand what led to that increase in diversity in recent decades, we need to take a step back to the past, starting with the origin of the domesticated tomato.
 
Centuries ago in in South America, the Incas were collecting wild from the wild tomatoes in nature, their own, tomatoes just for for eating. After that, tomatoes were also transported to Central America. That was, well, many centuries ago, leading to a decrease compared to the wild tomatoes. Then, Columbus also, imported, these tomatoes into north western Europe, leading to a further reduction in diversity.
 
These tomatoes were further, propagated. They were by just by collecting sweets from these plants leading to selection and a further decrease in genetic diversity. That diversity went down and down, especially in the previous century. So actually in the 1960s, all tomatoes were very similar. They had this size, were red round and were all very similar.
 
The growers were interested in yields and therefore, the breeders were very much focused on yields and also on the reduction of pesticides, because it's also important for the growers. And, 1970s breeders started to introduce resistances to diseases and pass in the varieties by making crosses between the, the, the normal tomatoes, the commercial tomatoes and wild tomatoes.
 
And these wild tomatoes had resistances. They were introduced, leading to an increase in genetic diversity in the 1970s, in the 1980s, and still it's increasing because of adding new resistances from wild tomatoes, making these tomatoes more resistant, stronger, less dependent on pesticides so they can be grown in a good way, healthy and strong. In the 1970s, the focus was on breeding for the needs of growers, but maybe less on providing choices for consumers.
 
2030 years ago, there was 1 or 2 tomato types in the grocery. Shop in the supermarkets was a big, red tomato. I think that's a change in the 80s, has been mainly driven by the consumers. They simply were were complaining, hey, these tomatoes, they are not tasty. And they were right. The focus has been too much, just making more tomatoes and, in this case, going at the cost of, of of flavor.
 
It was an eye opener for industry. And not only brilliant companies, but also retail. We all put in our efforts in order to change that. Nowadays there are maybe ten different products in the supermarkets. Cherry tomatoes, so-called snacks. They are in plastic boxes. You can get them on the vine. You have different colors.
 
There are differences in flavor. You don't see it, but you know them when you buy them. So there is an enormous variation in, and choices which have become available for consumers as well as you can think about the, the industry. So, for the ketchup and for the, produce chain making for sandwiches, for example, they also require a specific type of tomato.
 
So in that way, breeding has facilitated in making applicable products hybrids which are suited for the needs of a producing partner or a consumer.
 
It's important to have sufficient diversity among varieties to prevent the situation that, seriously, epidemics arise, as we have seen last century, for instance, in bananas, where there was a serious epidemics from banana in banana because of Panama disease, because they was, all bananas were the same. So when one banana became susceptible, whole, fields were destroyed by the Panama disease.
 
Without genetic diversity, we cannot do plant breeding, and we cannot anticipate, making new products for the future. And this varies from, finding, disease resistances for growers, as well as identifying and, making available new interesting traits for consumers. Better flavor, still different colors, everything. What is appealing for consumers? Without genetic variation, this would not be possible.
 
De genetic diversity is, of course, the basis to do plant breeding. And we have several sources of genetic variation. It starts with available commercial varieties, from ourselves as well as from competitors, which through plant breeding, exception we can utilize to to keep or even increase the genetic diversity. Then we have also had varieties, and also wild species.
 
These are maintained through gene banks, which, which are doing a very important job and, and maintaining the genetic diversity which exist in nature.
 
We support safeguarding genetic diversity by supporting gene banks all over the world. We cooperate with them for the storing of their seeds, for the multiplication of seeds from the gene bank. We support the gathering missions that they do. With this, we ensured a worldwide supply of, genetic variation available to the global society.
 
We basically, fund our, R&D work. So, research and breeding through seed sales, as it takes between 5 to 10 years to make varieties. This is a long term investments. Plant breeders rights are very important, to us because it is important to have this return on investments. Plant breeders protection plays a very important role as it enables us to protect the varieties and all the research and effort that has gone into these varieties, makes us able to, gain an income, on these varieties, development of tomato varieties.
 
Without this return on investment, it would be impossible, to continue the breeding of new varieties, and therefore we cannot contribute to the society. One of the features of the up of system of plant variety protection is the breeders exemption. Under the breeders exemption in the up of convention, the authorization of the breeder is not required for the use of protected varieties for breeding new varieties, it's not important for breeders.
 
The breeding exemption allows, the use of genetic, variation, which is available at commercially level, thereby not hindering doing plant breeding. But at the same time it's it's an exemption. So it is giving, let's say for the breeding companies a time advantage. If you have developed a new variety, and, and the breeding exemption makes it that it doesn't become an, the monopoly of, of 1 or 2 breeding companies.
 
The membership of you both gives great benefits to both grow, growers and consumers as it, encourages us to keep developing new varieties, which in turn help to grower and also, give a stable supply of healthy tomatoes for the consumers. It's important that that countries, have a membership for the up of and thereby supporting the, the, the guidance and, rules which, which are sets and standardized by you of some countries are not part of up of these.
 
And simply making it that's companies are not investing for these countries and making suited for varieties. So it's, it's and that's, that's a pity for them because it is it is not in their benefits if they are not member of you of.
 
Through climate change, the conditions of growing tomatoes will change. This will also bring new, diseases and pest with them. At the same time, consumers, change their needs for tomatoes for, or how they use tomatoes. As breeding companies, we need to, tick all these boxes. We don't know of what what consumer needs will be in the future, but I think they will continue to, to like, to choose for diversity.
 
Some like more sweet, some like more acid tomatoes. I believe that's, there was also a trend for, higher social awareness. So, better for climates, lower carbon footprints. And if we can reach that through, different ways of growing, using different varieties, I think that will also be, something to anticipate on for the future.
This video will look at the work of plant breeders over recent decades to provide a wide diversity and choice of tomato varieties. As a response to some concerns that varieties were becoming less diverse, we choose tomato because we have, a long history in tomato research. And moreover, there were concerns about genetic diversity, especially regarding tomato.
 
So we measured the diversity of the tomato cultivars at the DNA level by first collecting plant varieties, tomato varieties from the different decades the 50s, 60s, 70s, etc. until now. And then we isolated DNA and looked at the DNA, how much diversity there was between varieties. Within a decade. That was the first thing. The second thing is that we also looked at the fruit quality traits.
 
So we looked at sweetness, acidity, texture, juiciness, aromatic compounds. So how does it smell? And we evaluated that for each decade. The result was clear. Nowadays we have an eight fold increase compared to the 1960s. A looking at the DNA level to understand what led to that increase in diversity in recent decades, we need to take a step back to the past, starting with the origin of the domesticated tomato.
 
Centuries ago in in South America, the Incas were collecting wild from the wild tomatoes in nature, their own, tomatoes just for for eating. After that, tomatoes were also transported to Central America. That was, well, many centuries ago, leading to a decrease compared to the wild tomatoes. Then, Columbus also, imported, these tomatoes into north western Europe, leading to a further reduction in diversity.
 
These tomatoes were further, propagated. They were by just by collecting sweets from these plants leading to selection and a further decrease in genetic diversity. That diversity went down and down, especially in the previous century. So actually in the 1960s, all tomatoes were very similar. They had this size, were red round and were all very similar.
 
The growers were interested in yields and therefore, the breeders were very much focused on yields and also on the reduction of pesticides, because it's also important for the growers. And, 1970s breeders started to introduce resistances to diseases and pass in the varieties by making crosses between the, the, the normal tomatoes, the commercial tomatoes and wild tomatoes.
 
And these wild tomatoes had resistances. They were introduced, leading to an increase in genetic diversity in the 1970s, in the 1980s, and still it's increasing because of adding new resistances from wild tomatoes, making these tomatoes more resistant, stronger, less dependent on pesticides so they can be grown in a good way, healthy and strong. In the 1970s, the focus was on breeding for the needs of growers, but maybe less on providing choices for consumers.
 
2030 years ago, there was 1 or 2 tomato types in the grocery. Shop in the supermarkets was a big, red tomato. I think that's a change in the 80s, has been mainly driven by the consumers. They simply were were complaining, hey, these tomatoes, they are not tasty. And they were right. The focus has been too much, just making more tomatoes and, in this case, going at the cost of, of of flavor.
 
It was an eye opener for industry. And not only brilliant companies, but also retail. We all put in our efforts in order to change that. Nowadays there are maybe ten different products in the supermarkets. Cherry tomatoes, so-called snacks. They are in plastic boxes. You can get them on the vine. You have different colors.
 
There are differences in flavor. You don't see it, but you know them when you buy them. So there is an enormous variation in, and choices which have become available for consumers as well as you can think about the, the industry. So, for the ketchup and for the, produce chain making for sandwiches, for example, they also require a specific type of tomato.
 
So in that way, breeding has facilitated in making applicable products hybrids which are suited for the needs of a producing partner or a consumer.
 
It's important to have sufficient diversity among varieties to prevent the situation that, seriously, epidemics arise, as we have seen last century, for instance, in bananas, where there was a serious epidemics from banana in banana because of Panama disease, because they was, all bananas were the same. So when one banana became susceptible, whole, fields were destroyed by the Panama disease.
 
Without genetic diversity, we cannot do plant breeding, and we cannot anticipate, making new products for the future. And this varies from, finding, disease resistances for growers, as well as identifying and, making available new interesting traits for consumers. Better flavor, still different colors, everything. What is appealing for consumers? Without genetic variation, this would not be possible.
 
De genetic diversity is, of course, the basis to do plant breeding. And we have several sources of genetic variation. It starts with available commercial varieties, from ourselves as well as from competitors, which through plant breeding, exception we can utilize to to keep or even increase the genetic diversity. Then we have also had varieties, and also wild species.
 
These are maintained through gene banks, which, which are doing a very important job and, and maintaining the genetic diversity which exist in nature.
 
We support safeguarding genetic diversity by supporting gene banks all over the world. We cooperate with them for the storing of their seeds, for the multiplication of seeds from the gene bank. We support the gathering missions that they do. With this, we ensured a worldwide supply of, genetic variation available to the global society.
 
We basically, fund our, R&D work. So, research and breeding through seed sales, as it takes between 5 to 10 years to make varieties. This is a long term investments. Plant breeders rights are very important, to us because it is important to have this return on investments. Plant breeders protection plays a very important role as it enables us to protect the varieties and all the research and effort that has gone into these varieties, makes us able to, gain an income, on these varieties, development of tomato varieties.
 
Without this return on investment, it would be impossible, to continue the breeding of new varieties, and therefore we cannot contribute to the society. One of the features of the up of system of plant variety protection is the breeders exemption. Under the breeders exemption in the up of convention, the authorization of the breeder is not required for the use of protected varieties for breeding new varieties, it's not important for breeders.
 
The breeding exemption allows, the use of genetic, variation, which is available at commercially level, thereby not hindering doing plant breeding. But at the same time it's it's an exemption. So it is giving, let's say for the breeding companies a time advantage. If you have developed a new variety, and, and the breeding exemption makes it that it doesn't become an, the monopoly of, of 1 or 2 breeding companies.
 
The membership of you both gives great benefits to both grow, growers and consumers as it, encourages us to keep developing new varieties, which in turn help to grower and also, give a stable supply of healthy tomatoes for the consumers. It's important that that countries, have a membership for the up of and thereby supporting the, the, the guidance and, rules which, which are sets and standardized by you of some countries are not part of up of these.
 
And simply making it that's companies are not investing for these countries and making suited for varieties. So it's, it's and that's, that's a pity for them because it is it is not in their benefits if they are not member of you of.
 
Through climate change, the conditions of growing tomatoes will change. This will also bring new, diseases and pest with them. At the same time, consumers, change their needs for tomatoes for, or how they use tomatoes. As breeding companies, we need to, tick all these boxes. We don't know of what what consumer needs will be in the future, but I think they will continue to, to like, to choose for diversity.
 
Some like more sweet, some like more acid tomatoes. I believe that's, there was also a trend for, higher social awareness. So, better for climates, lower carbon footprints. And if we can reach that through, different ways of growing, using different varieties, I think that will also be, something to anticipate on for the future.
Fecha de publicación:

5 de enero de 2023

Etiquetas:
Breeders
Compartir este contenido: