HISTORY OF PLANT BREEDING

PRESENTED BY: Pawan NagarReg. no.: 04-2690-2015M.Sc.(Fruit Science)

HISTORY OF PLANT BREEDING

In broad sense history of plant breeding can be divided into Four parts

1. Pre Mendelian era:- before 1900. 2. Mendelian era:- 1900 to 1920. 3. Post Mendelian era:- 1921 to 1950. 4. Modern era:- after 1950.

1. PRE MENDELIAN ERA:-The process of bringing a wild species under human management is

referred to as Domestication. 9000 B.C.: First evidence of plant domestication in the hills above

the Tigris River. 3000 B.C.: Domestication of all important food crops in the Old World

completed. 1000 B.C.: Domestication of all important food crops in the New

World completed. 700 B.C.: Babylonians and Assyrians hand pollinate date palm

artificially. 1665: Robert Hooke(England): First described the cell and known as

father of cell biology. 1694: Camerarius of Germany first to demonstrate sex in plants and

suggested crossing as a method to obtain new plant types.

CONTINUE….. 1717: Thomas Fairchild: Developed first Inter specific

hybrid between sweet William and Carnation Species of Dianthus popularly known as Fair Child’s mule.

1727: The first plant breeding company was established in France by the vilmorins and introduced the pedigree method of breeding.

1753: Linnaeus published “Species planetarium”. Binomial nomenclature of plant taxonomy officially begins with his general list of plant species.

1766: Joseph Koelreuter of Germany demonstrated that hybrid offspring received traits from both parents and were intermediate in most traits observed and produced first scientific hybrid using tobacco.

CONTINUE….. 1800-1835: Knight T.A (English): First used Artificial

Hybridization in Fruit Crops. 1819: Shirreff: Utilized pure line selection to develop a new oat

cultivar (Released in 1824), and a new wheat cultivar (Released in 1832).

1823: Knight: Dominance, Recessiveness, and segregation observed in peas.

1840: John Le Couteur: They developed the concept of progeny test and individual plant selection in cereals.

1840-50: De Vilmorin (French Biologist): : progeny test in wheat, oat, and sugar-beet breeding.

1856: De Vilmorin: Further elaborated the concept of progeny test and used same in Sugarbeet.

1859-89: Darwin: Published “Origin of species”, and noted inbreeding sterility and differences in reciprocal crosses.

CONTINUE….. 1866: Mendel G.J (Austria): published his discoveries

in “Experiments in plant hybridization”, cumulating in the formulation of laws of inheritance in garden pea and discovery of unit factors (genes).

1873: The work of Patrick Shireff was first published and He concluded that only the variation heritable nature responded to selections, and that there variation arose through ‘natural sports’ (= mutation) and by ‘natural hybridization’ (recombination during meiosis in the hybrids so produced).

1890: Rimpu (Sweden): First made inheritance cross between bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) and rye (Secale cereale), which later on gave birth to triticale.

2. MENDELIAN ERA:- 1900: De Varies (Holland) Correns (Germany)

Tschermak (Austria) Rediscovered Mendel laws of inheritance independently.

1900: Nilson, H (Swedish):  Elaborated individual plant selection method in Sweden.

1903: Johannsen W.L: proposed the pureline theory that provided the genetic basis for Individual plant selection and also coined the terms Genotype, Phenotype and Pureline.

1908–1909: Hardy of England and Weinberg of Germany developed the law of equilibrium of populations.

1908: Devenport, C.B: First proposed dominance hypothesis of heterosis. 

CONTINUE….

1908: Shull, G.H (US) East, E.M (US) proposed over dominance hypothesis independently working with maize.

1909: Shull conducted extensive research to develop inbreds to produce hybrids use of F1 hybrids between inbreds in corn breeding.

1909: Nilsson-Ehle: Given the explanation of multiple factor hypothesis for Grain colour of Wheat by using a Pedigree breeding and Bulk breeding.

1910: Bruce, A.B. keable, F. and Pellew, C. Elaborated the dominance hypothesis of heterosis proposed by davenport.

1914: Shull, G.H: First used the term heterosis for hybrid vigour.

CONTINUE….

1917: Jones developed first commercial hybrid maize and proposed dominance of linked gene hypothesis.

1919: Hays, H.K. Garber, R.J Gave initial idea about recurrent selection. They first suggested use of synthetic varieties for commercial cultivation in maize.

3. POST MENDELIAN ERA:- 1923: Sax: linkage between quantitative and qualitative

traits in beans. 1926: East, E.M and Mangelsdorf, A.J: First discovered

gametophytic system of self incompatibility in Nicotiana sanderae.

1926: Pioneer Hi-bred Corn Company established as first Seed Company.

1926: Vavilov, N.I: Identified 8 main centers and 3 sub centers of crop diversity. He also developed concept of parallel series of variation or law of homologous series of variation.

1927: Muller produced mutations in fruit flies using x-rays. 1927: Karpencheko developed first intergeneric hybrid

between Radish and Cabbage in Russia. 1928: Stadler, L.J (US): First used X-rays for induction of

mutations in barley.

CONTINUE….. 1933: Rhoades: Discovered cytoplasmic male sterility

in Maize. 1934: Dustin discovered colchicines. 1935: Vavilov published the scientific basis of plant

breeding. 1935: Nagahern proposed the origin of tetraploid

species of Brassica using a triangle. 1936: East, E.M: Supported over dominance hypothesis

of heterosis proposed by East and Shull in 1908. 1939: Goulden, C.H: First suggested the use of single

seed descent method for advancing segregating generations of self pollinating crops.

1940: Jenkins, M.T: Described the procedure of recurrent selection.

CONTINUE….. 1944: Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty: Described the

transforming principle and suggested that DNA, not protein, is the hereditary material.

1945: Hull, F.H: Coined the terms recurrent selection and overdominance working with maize.

1950: Hughes and Babcock:  First discovered sporophytic system of self incompatibility in Crepis foetida.

1950: McClintock discovered the Ac-Ds system of transposable elements.

4. MODERN ERA:- 1952: Jensen, N.F: First suggested the use of multi lines in

oats. 1953: Borlaug, N.E: First outlined the method of developing

multilines in Wheat. 1953: Watson, Crick, and Wilkins proposed a model for

Double Helical Structure of DNA. 1956: Flor: gene for gene hypothesis for host-parasite

resistance. 1964: Borlaug, N.E: Developed high yielding semi dwarf

varieties of wheat which resulted in green revolution. 1965: Graphius, J.E: First applied Single Seed Descent (SSD)

method in oats. 1968: Donald: Developed the concept of crop ideotype in

wheat.

CONTINUE….. 1970: Patel, C.T: Developed world’s first cotton hybrid

for commercial cultivation in India. 1970: Borlaug received Nobel Prize for the Green

Revolution 1970: Berg, Cohen, and Boyer introduced the

Recombinant DNA technology. 1976: Yuan Long Ping et al: Developed world’s first rice

hybrid (CMS based) for commercial cultivation in China. 1983: Fraley et al.: Development of first transgenic

(Genetically engineered) plant tobacco in USA. 1987: Monsanto: Developed world’s transgenic cotton

plant in USA. 1991: ICRISAT: Developed world’s first pigeon pea hybrid

(ICPH 8) (GMS based) for commercial cultivation in India.

CONTINUE….. 1994: “FlavrSavr” tomato developed as first genetically

modified food produced for the market by calgene company of California.

1995: Bt corn developed. 1996: Glyphosate Resistant Crop® soybean introduced. 1997: Monsanto, USA: First identified terminator gene, which

allows germination of seed for one generation only. 1908: Monsanto, USA: Identification of traitor gene, which

responds to specific brand of fertilizers and insecticides. 2001:Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act

(PPVFRA). 2002:Mahyco-Monsanto: Released three Bt Hybrids (MECH12,

MECH16, MECH 184). 2004: Glyphosate Resistant Crop® wheat developed. 2005: Govt. of India: Approved cultivation of some Bt cotton

hybrids in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND HISTORY OF PLANT BREEDING IN INDIA 1871: The Government of India created the Department of

Agriculture. 1892: First scientist appointed in the Department. He was

agricultural chemist. 1901-05: Agricultural Colleges were established at Kanpur,

Pune, Sabour, Llyalpur, Coimbatore. 1905: The Imperial Agricultural Research Institute was

established in Pusa, Bihar. 1934: The buildings of the institute damaged in

earthquake. 1936: Shifted to New Delhi. 1946: Name was changed Indian Agricultural Research

Institute.

CONTINUE…..

1929: Imperial council of Agricultural Research was established in New Delhi.

1946: Name was change to Indian Council Agricultural Research. 1921: Indian Central Cotton Committee was established Notable

researches on Breeding and cultivation of cotton. E.g.: 70 improved varieties of cotton.

1956: Project for intensification of regional research on cotton, oilseeds and millets (PIRRCOM) was initiated to intensify research on these crops located at 17 Different centres throughout the country.

1957: All India Coordinated maize improvement project was started with objective of exploiting heterosis.

1960: First Agricultural University established at Pantnagar, Nainital, U.P.

1961: The first hybrid maize varieties released by the project. ICAR initiated Coordinated projects for improvement of the other crops.

CONTINUE…..

1961: First Maize hybrid was released (Ganga1, Ganga101, Deccan and Ranjit).

1964: First Sorghum Hybrid (CSH-1) was released. 1965: First Bajra hybrid (HB-1) was released. 1971: One of the pioneer centre for research in

India TNAU was established. 1991: First pigeon pea hybrid (ICPH-8) was released

from ICRISAT(Six Mandate Crop are Pearl millet, Sorghum, Pigeon pea, Chickpea, Finger millet, Groundnut), Hyderabad.

SOME INDIAN PLANT BREEDERSr No. Scientists Contribution

1 T.S. Venkatraman

An eminent sugarcane breeder, he transferred thick stem and high sugar contents from tropical noble cane (Saccharum officinanum) to North Indian Canes (Saccharum barberi). This process is known as Noblization of sugarcane.

2 B.P. Pal An eminent Wheat breeder, developed superior disease resistant varieties of wheat and also first director general of ICAR.

3 M.S. Swaminathan

Responsible for green revolution in India, developed high yielding dwarf varieties of Wheat and Rice.

4 Pushkarnath A Famous potato breeder who developed several high yielding varieties of potato. He was the Director of CPRI, Shimala.

SOME INDIAN PLANT BREEDERSr No. Scientists Contribution

5 N.G.P. Rao An eminent sorghum breeder who developed the world’s first hybrid of sorghum(CSH-1).

6 K. Ramaiah A renowned rice breeder. He developed several high yielding varieties of rice when he was the Director of CRRI, Cuttack.

7 K. Athwal Famous pearlmillet breeder. He worked in PAU, Ludhiana and developed several superior varieties.

8 Bosisen An eminent maize breeder. He Developed several varieties of maize for Hill region of Uttranchal

9 Dharampal Singh

An eminent oil-seed breeder. He released several varieties of oil-seeds(Rapeseed and Mustard) from Kanpur.

10 C.T. Patel Famous cotton breeder who developed world’s first cotton hybrid(H-4) in 1970 known as FATHER of Hybrid Cotton.

11 V. Santhanam Famous cotton breeder.