Chimeric Gene Herbicide Tolerance for Hybrid Seed Production
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current hybrid seed production methods for crops like wheat are inefficient due to the need for separate planting of male and female parent lines, high costs of chemical hybridizing agents, and the challenge of maintaining male sterility, leading to economic and logistical issues in hybrid seed production.
Innovation Solution
A method involving the transformation of plants with specific chimeric genes that encode enzymes to convert a herbicide into a non-phytotoxic substance, allowing for conditional sterility in plants, enabling efficient hybrid seed production by using a commercial herbicide for both hybridization and weed control, with the herbicide's application timing and dosage optimized to minimize self-fertilization and maximize yield.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If separate blocks of male and female parent lines are planted for hybrid seed production, then hybrid seed can be produced, but land use efficiency is low and production cost is high
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines male and female parent lines into a single field by inducing male sterility in female plants through chemical treatment (aniline phosphinate). This allows both parent lines to occupy the same space, eliminating the need for separate blocks and improving land use efficiency while maintaining hybrid seed production capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the fertility parameter of female plants from fertile to sterile through chemical treatment with aniline phosphinate applied at specific growth stages. This parameter change allows females to be planted alongside males in the same field, as they will not self-pollinate and will only produce hybrid seed when pollinated by male plants.
2Productivity
If chemical hybridizing agents are used to induce male sterility, then hybrid seed production is enabled, but production cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses aniline phosphinate, a relatively inexpensive chemical agent, to induce temporary male sterility in female plants. The chemical is applied at specific growth stages (boot stage to early flowering) to induce sterility, and its effect is transient, allowing the plants to resume normal function after seed set. This disposable chemical intervention enables hybrid production without requiring expensive transgenic modifications or complex mechanical emasculation.
3Stability of the object's composition
If male fertile plants are maintained in the female parent line population, then the population can be maintained, but self-pollination occurs and hybrid seed purity is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies chemical treatment (aniline phosphinate) to female plants at the boot stage or early flowering stage, before self-pollination can occur. This preliminary induction of male sterility prevents self-fertilization from the outset, ensuring that all seeds produced in the female field are hybrid seeds resulting from cross-pollination by male plants, thereby maintaining high hybrid seed purity while keeping the female parent line population stable.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach allows for the production of hybrid seeds with plants that are vegetatively and reproductively tolerant to the herbicide, enabling its use for weed control without significant yield loss, and ensures that subsequent generations are sterile or have reduced fecundity when exposed to the herbicide, thus simplifying management of volunteer plants.
Implementation Method 1
transformation of plants with specific chimeric genes that encode enzymes to convert a herbicide into a non-phytotoxic substance
Data Source
AI summary
A method of producing male or female sterile plants comprising providing means for inactivating a herbicide and means for reactivating the thus inactivated herbicide, wherein the herbicide inactivating means is provided within vegetative tissues and the reactivating means is provided in either the male or female reproductive structures of the plant, so that the vegetative, but not reproductive, structures are protected from the phtyotoxic activity of the herbicide when applied to the plant.