Hybrid Tomatillo Breeding for Stable Yield and Fruit Quality

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing tomatillo breeding methods fail to produce stable, high-yielding hybrids with improved fruit quality and agronomic traits, such as size, shape, and disease resistance, which are essential for maximizing land use efficiency and market appeal.

Innovation Solution

Development of the hybrid tomatillo plant designated BOTERO, which includes methods for vegetative propagation, tissue culture, and genetic modification using New Breeding Techniques like CRISPR/Cas endonucleases to introduce desired traits, combined with traditional breeding methods like backcrossing and recurrent selection, ensuring the expression of specific characteristics.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If traditional breeding methods are used, then breeding simplicity is maintained, but yield stability and fruit quality improvement are insufficient

Engineering Contradiction:
ImproveyieldVSAvoidbreeding method complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent combines traditional breeding methods with New Breeding Techniques (NBTs) like CRISPR/Cas endonucleases to create a hybrid approach. This merging allows the integration of conventional crossing and selection procedures with precise genetic editing, achieving both yield improvement and breeding simplicity through complementary strengths of each method.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent utilizes CRISPR/Cas endonucleases to make precise parameter changes in the plant genome by targeting specific genes or sequences. This enables controlled modification of traits such as yield, fruit quality, and disease resistance without the complexity of traditional multi-generation breeding, directly addressing the contradiction between productivity improvement and breeding complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

2Reliability

If New Breeding Techniques like CRISPR/Cas endonucleases are used, then disease resistance and fruit quality are improved, but breeding technology complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedisease resistanceVSAvoidbreeding technology complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts and utilizes specific functional elements from the CRISPR/Cas system to achieve disease resistance. By focusing on the endonuclease activity and guide RNA components, the technology isolates the essential function of gene editing while managing complexity through targeted application rather than comprehensive system implementation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent employs an intermediary approach by using CRISPR/Cas endonucleases as precise tools to modify plant genomes. This intermediary technology enables direct manipulation of genetic sequences responsible for disease resistance and fruit quality, achieving reliable trait improvement with controlled technical complexity through standardized protocols.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Productivity

If hybridization is performed to improve fruit traits, then fruit quality and yield are enhanced, but genetic stability across generations may be compromised

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvefruit yieldVSAvoidgenetic stability
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSStability of the object's composition

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies preliminary action by performing genetic editing with CRISPR/Cas endonucleases before hybridization to establish stable genetic modifications in parent lines. This preliminary genetic enhancement ensures that when hybrids are produced, the desired traits for fruit quality and yield are already encoded with high genetic stability, preventing deterioration across generations.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent creates composite genetic materials by combining CRISPR-edited parent lines with traditional hybridization. This composite approach integrates the genetic stability of edited lines with the vigor of hybrids, achieving both improved fruit traits and maintained genetic stability across generations through the synergistic combination of different breeding strategies.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #40Composite materials

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

The hybrid tomatillo BOTERO achieves enhanced fruit quality, yield, and disease resistance, maintaining consistent morphological and physiological traits across generations, thereby addressing the limitations of existing breeding techniques.

Implementation Method 1

genetic modification using New Breeding Techniques like CRISPR/Cas endonucleases to introduce desired traits

Methodology Applied
Scientific EffectCRISPR/Cas endonuclease:

Data Source

PatentUS20260041055A1Hybrid tomatillo plant named botero
Publication Date: 2026.02.12 HM CLAUSE

AI summary

A novel hybrid tomatillo plant, designated BOTERO is disclosed. The disclosure relates to the seeds of hybrid tomatillo designated BOTERO, to the plants and plant parts of hybrid tomatillo designated BOTERO, and to methods for producing a tomatillo plant by crossing the hybrid tomatillo BOTERO with itself or another tomatillo plant.