Plant Tissue Freezing for Cold Tolerance and Seedless Fruit
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for cultivating crops from subtropical and tropical zones in temperate and arctic zones require long breeding times, involve chemical treatments, or have low efficiency, and lack techniques for enhancing growth rate and cold tolerance without gene manipulation or chemical treatments.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a freezing step at −20° C. or less for 180 days or more, followed by thawing and regenerating plants, which can enhance growth characteristics and cold tolerance, and a process for producing seedless fruits in papaya by freezing plant tissues and promoting parthenogenesis without chemical treatments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional breeding methods are used to cultivate tropical crops in temperate zones, then crop adaptability is improved, but breeding time becomes excessively long
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by subjecting plant tissues to freezing treatment before breeding operations. This pre-treatment prepares the tissues to respond more effectively to subsequent breeding processes, accelerating the fixation of desirable characteristics without requiring extended traditional breeding periods.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes physical parameters by introducing freezing treatment at specific temperatures (−20°C or lower) for defined durations (180 days or more). This parameter change induces physiological modifications in plant tissues that enhance their adaptability to temperate climates while significantly reducing the time required for characteristic fixation.
2Productivity
If chemical treatments such as gibberellin are used to produce seedless fruits, then seedless fruit production is achieved, but chemical residue harm increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent converts the harmful effect of chemical treatments into a beneficial physical treatment process. Instead of using chemical substances like gibberellin to induce parthenogenesis, the invention uses freezing treatment followed by thawing to achieve the same seedless fruit production effect, thereby eliminating chemical residue harm while maintaining productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces chemical mechanisms with physical mechanisms. The chemical treatment approach is substituted with a physical freezing-thawing cycle that induces parthenogenesis and produces seedless fruits through physiological changes rather than chemical intervention, eliminating residue problems.
3Reliability
If freezing treatment is applied for extended periods to enhance cold tolerance, then plant cold tolerance is improved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes parameter changes by establishing specific freezing temperature thresholds (−20°C or lower) and duration requirements (180 days or more). These parameter specifications ensure sufficient cold tolerance enhancement while providing clear guidelines for energy consumption management during the freezing process.
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 method allows for rapid enhancement of plant characteristics and efficient production of seedless fruits, enabling crops to thrive in temperate and arctic zones without chemical treatments, with high growth rates and cold tolerance, and achieving high efficiency in seedless fruit production.
Implementation Method 1
a freezing step of freezing a plant tissue
Implementation Method 2
a thawing step of thawing the frozen plant tissue
Data Source
AI summary
To provide a novel technique for enhancing characteristics of a plant without using a gene recombination technique. A plant is treated with a freezing step of freezing a plant tissue, a thawing step of thawing the frozen plant tissue, and a generating step of generating a plant from the thawed plant tissue.