फल व सब्जी फसलों में संकर भ्रूण निस्तार

 

Technology Description

• During wide hybridization in plant breeding, crosses often do not result in hybrid plants because of embryo abortion.
• Using in vitro breeding techniques like hybrid embryo rescue, it is possible to save such crosses and develop hybrids not otherwise possible.

• It is thus a boon to the breeder and is attractive as a non-GM biotechnology for introducing desired genes in a crop/variety.

We have demonstrated this in

• Fruit crops (seedless grape, seedless lime, mango, papaya, banana) &
• Vegetable crops (capsicum, onion, tomato and brinjal)

Products and By- products

• New hybrids and genetic combinations of crop genotypes possible that conventional breeding cannot provide

Technology Benefits

• Successful in incompatible / interspecific / intergeneric crosses; also useful in crosses where immature fruit-drop is very high
• Seedless crops, eg., Thompson Seedless grape, can be used (even as the female parent)
• A practical alternative to GM crops; attracts no opposition

Target segment /End User Profile

• Private companies involved in commercial breeding of horticultural crops

This technology can be applied to any crop and Joint Venture can be entered into with companies desiring specific cross-combinations

Market potential

• Penetration of niche markets (since such hybrids cannot be developed conventionally)

Investment Required

• Existing R&D tissue culture laboratories housed with the seed companies can use this technology without any additional infrastructure cost.

Expected Returns/Profit

• The technology is cross/crop specific.
• For example:In Thompson Seedless grape, Downy Mildew disease can cause 100% crop-loss. A resistant hybrid developed through embryo rescue would give 100% success as against zero success in traditional breeding.Similarly, in brinjal, when Solanum macrocarpon is used as a parent for developing resistance to shoot & fruit borer, hybrids cannot be generated conventionally. But, this is possible through embryo rescue, a knowledge and skill-intensive technology. Such approaches are an alternative solution to GM foods like Bt brinjal, etc.