Hybrid Corn Genetics for Self-Pollination Control and Stable Yield

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing corn breeding techniques struggle to develop hybrids with uniformity and stability, incorporating desirable traits such as yield, disease resistance, and drought tolerance, while maintaining efficient hybrid production methods.

Innovation Solution

The development of the hybrid corn variety CH010492, which includes genetic modifications for traits like male sterility, herbicide resistance, and disease resistance, achieved through methods like backcrossing and genetic transformation, ensuring uniformity and stability.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If physical emasculation is used during hybrid seed production, then self-pollination can be prevented, but labor intensity and production complexity increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveprevention of self-pollinationVSAvoidproduction complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The plant itself provides the solution by having inherent male sterility or self-incompatibility mechanisms that prevent self-pollination without requiring external physical intervention. The cytoplasmic or nuclear factors confer automatic prevention of self-fertilization, making the plant self-regulating in terms of pollination control.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The male fertility function is extracted or removed from the plant through cytoplasmic male sterility or nuclear male sterility, creating a plant that cannot produce functional pollen or self-pollinate. This extraction of the male function eliminates the need for physical emasculation while maintaining hybrid seed production capability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

2Reliability

If multiple desirable traits are combined in a single hybrid variety, then agronomic performance improves, but breeding complexity and time required increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveagronomic performanceVSAvoidbreeding time
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

Multiple desirable traits are pre-combined in the inbred parental lines before hybridization. The inbred plants are developed with specific traits (disease resistance, yield components, stress tolerance) already integrated through prior breeding work, so that the hybridization step simultaneously combines all these pre-selected traits without requiring additional time during the hybrid seed production phase.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

Multiple desirable traits from different inbred lines are merged into a single hybrid variety through controlled cross-pollination. The hybrid combines disease resistance, yield traits, and stress tolerance from both parents, creating a unified variety with comprehensive agronomic performance improvement.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

3Productivity

If cytoplasmic male sterility is used to prevent self-pollination, then hybrid seed production efficiency improves, but genetic uniformity may be affected

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvehybrid seed production efficiencyVSAvoidgenetic uniformity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSStability of the object's composition

Solution Approach 1:

The cytoplasmic male sterility trait is localized to specific cytoplasmic lines while maintaining uniform nuclear genetics. Different cytoplasmic lines with male sterility can be used with compatible nuclear backgrounds, allowing hybrid seed production efficiency improvement while maintaining genetic uniformity within each specific hybrid combination through controlled crossing protocols.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentUS12616137B2Plants and seeds of hybrid corn variety CH010492
Publication Date: 2026.05.05 MONSANTO TECHNOLOGY LLC

AI summary

According to the disclosure, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH010492. The disclosure thus relates to the plants, seeds, and tissue cultures of the variety CH010492, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH010492 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The disclosure further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH010492.