History of Plant Breeding

Plant Breeding Overview (HS 521)

B. C.

9000 First evidence of plant domestication in hills above Tigris River
5000 Agricultural communities exist in Mesopotamia Mesopotamia
4000 Egyptians used yeast in wine and bread making
3000 Peruvians select and grow potatoes
3000 Domestication complete for all important food crops in the old world
2000 Chinese develop fermentation
1000 Domestication complete for all important food crops in the new world
700 Assyrians and Babylonians – Hand pollination of date palm

1 – 1800

1665 Hooke (England) – Described the cell
1675 Malpighi – Conducted anatomical investigations in plants; repeated the observations of Hooke
1676 Millington – Anthers function as male organs
Grew – Suggested the function of pollen and ovules
The Dutch – Performed first extensive systematic breeding of flowers. First hybrid hyacinth
1694 *Camerarius (Germany) – First to demonstrate sex in plants. Suggested crossing as a method to get new types. Worked with mulberry and maize. Systematic plant breeding was established at this point. Slow progress because workers did not recognize difference between genetic and environmental variation
1716 Mather (U.S.A.) – Observed natural crossing in maize. Noted xenia, where ears of yellow maize planted next to red and blue maize had red and blue kernels in them the first year
1719 Fairchild – Created first artificial hybrid of Carnation x Sweet William, commonly known as Fairchildís mule
1727 Vilmorin Company (France) – Pedigree method of breeding sugar beets established. Contributed extensively to the development of plant breeding knowledge and improved cultivars for over 260 years
1753 Linnaeus Linnaeus – Published “Species Plantarum”. Binomial nomenclature of plant taxonomy officially begins with his general list of plant species
1761-66 *Koelreuter (Germany) – Demonstrated that hybrid offspring received traits from both parents (pollen and ovule transmit genetic information), and were intermediate in most traits. First scientific hybrid produced (tobacco). Demonstrated the identity of reciprocal crosses. Noted hybrid vigor, segregation of offspring (parental and non-parental types) from a hybrid
1778 Herbert (England) – Suggested winter hardiness was inherited after noting the research of Koelreuter
1779 Knight – Emphasized the practical aspects of hybrids. Worked on crop improvement (garden pea) rather than on inheritance. Noted the advantage of outcrossing to produce new forms
1785 *Van Mons – Started systematic selection of horticultural plants. Seed catalog in 1825 listed 1050 cultivars
1793 *Sprengel – Classic publication on the role of insects in pollination of angiosperms. Studied flower structure and color in relation to pollination and insect habits

1801 – 1850

1801 Lamarck – Theory of evolution through inheritance of acquired characters (giraffe stretched neck longer by feeding in tall trees, producing long-necked offspring)
1812 Gauss – Suggested the theory of least squares. Had begun the idea of “probable error” by 1820
1819 *Shirreff (Scotland) – Utilized pure line selection pure line selection (progeny test) to develop a new oat cultivar (released in 1824), and a new wheat cultivar (released in 1832). Had first nursery plots, with 70 families by 1857. Suggested crossing parents with desirable characteristics to obtain progeny of value
1820 Goss (England) – Reported dominance and recessiveness in peas
1823 *Amici – Noted pollen tubes pollen tubes in flower studies
Knight – Noted that male and female parents contribute equally to the F1, with segregation following in the F2. Made first wheat variety cross in Europe
1825 Lorain – Recognized the possibility of maize hybrids
1827-49 Von Gartner – Made the most extensive crossing experiments to date, with 10,000 crosses in 700 species from 80 genera
1830 Red May – first wheat cultivar selected in U. S. released
1831 Brown – Discovered the eukaryotic cell nucleus
1834 Hovey – “Father of the American Strawberry,” developed first fruit cultivar in North America using controlled pollination
1837-38 Schleiden and Schwann – Developed the cell theory cell theory of higher plant organization
1844-63 Godron – Used sterility of interspecific hybrids as evidence that the parents were distinct species
1844 Unger – Showed that cells come from the division of preexisting cells
1844-45 Thuret – Observed the union of sperm and egg while studying algae
1846 Quetelet – Described biological traits in quantitative terms
1847 Sutton – Developed cultivars of beets, peas and potatoes for production in Great Britain
Reid’s Yellow Dent maize – developed from the cross of 2 widely different types in the U. S.
1848 Hofmeister – Observed dark staining bodies (chromosomes) in the cell nucleus

1851 – 1900

1853 Bull – Produced ëConcordí grape by hybridizing European wine cultivars and wild grapes of New England
1855 Virchow – Established that the egg of one generation comes from the egg of the previous generation; the “continuity of heredity”
1858 Hofmeister – Discovered the female gametophyte
Darwin and Wallace – Developed the theory of natural selection
1859-89 *Darwin – Published “Origin of Species”; noted inbreeding, sterility, and differences in reciprocal crosses
1860 Louis Vilmorin – Stressed the value of self-pollination in breeding stable cultivars of wheat and sugar beets
Naudin – Did research much like Mendelís, describing the separation of essences in various proportions in germ cells and recombination in the offspring of a cross. Used Datura for his rather complex experiments. Thought the whole plant was a mosaic of the 2 parents
1861 Pasteur – used heat to kill bacteria
1861 Schultze – Found that protoplasm was an essential element in the cells of all organisms
1866 *Mendel – Published “Experiments in plant hybridization”; discovered unit factors (genes), segregation of F2, recombination of 2 or more genes, and dominance of one allele over another; formulated the laws of inheritance
1867 Bidwell (U. S.) – First detasseling of maize (breeding program)
1875 Pringles Progress – First hybrid oat in the U. S.
1875-77 Strasburger – First adequate description and drawing of chromosomes; nuclei arise only from nuclei; suggested the terms “gamete gamete ” and “chromosome chromosome “
1878-81 Beal (Michigan) – Suggested crossing maize cultivars to increase the yield of commercial types
1878 Henry Vilmorin – Did the first extensive work with interspecific crosses: Triticum vulgare x T. polonicum and T.durum
1879-80 Horsford – Selected the first known hybrid cultivar of barley
1881 Focke (U. S.) – Wrote book on plant breeding; coined the word “xenia xenia “; summarized Mendelís work
1885-87 Weismann – Wrote 12 essays on heredity and evolution, important in directing the trend of biology and thought; summarized current knowledge and pointed out the broad implications: continuity of germplasm, equal inheritance from parents, and non-heritability of acquired characters
1884 Strasburger – Demonstrated fertilization and showed the fusion of the 2 nuclei to form the zygote
1886 Schindel (Pennsylvania) – Developed the first hybrid wheat, ëFulcasterí
1888 Strasburger – Demonstrated reduction division in plants
1889 Galton – Wrote book on natural inheritance
1890s Farrer (Australia) – Ran extensive wheat breeding program using hybridization; selected for rust resistance
Hays – Used Centgener test Centgener test and pedigree selection on wheat and oats
1891 Kellerman and Swingle – First counts of segregation for starchy gene on maize ear
1892 Bailey (Cornell) – Listed Mendelís work in references in an essay on plant hybridization, copied from Focke
1894 Pearson – Made contribution to mathematical aspects of testing; introduced the term “standard deviation”
1899 *Hopkins – Described ear to row selection method (half-sib progeny testing)
Novashin (Russia) and
Guignard (Belgium) – Discovered double fertilization of egg and endosperm
Correns – Tested the validity of those findings, rediscovering Mendelís laws in the process
1900 Correns (Germany) and DeVries (Holland) and von Tschermak (Austria) – Independently rediscovered Mendelís laws of heredity
Bateson – Introduced the terms “allelomorph”, “homozygote homozygote”, “heterozygote heterozygote”, “F1” and “F2”
Hartley (U. S.) – Began inbreeding inbreeding maize

1901 – 1920

1901 Spillman (U. S.) – Began hybridization program with wheat; noted recovery of parental types in F₂; sometimes credited as one of rediscoverers of Mendelís laws
1901-02 Bateson and Punnett – Called public attention to the importance of Mendelís work; first report of linkage (using garden pea)
1902 DeVries (Holland) – Proposed the mutation theory of evolution from evidence in Oenothera
Biffen (England) – First inheritance studies on disease resistance;
found that stripe rust resistance was due to a single gene
1903 *Johannsen – Developed the pure line pure line theory of selection
1904 Hannig – Contributed to the idea of embryo culture
1904-05 *East and Shull – Began inbreeding inbreeding experiments with maize
1905 Shamel – Reported yields of maize lines inbred for 3 generations and their hybrids; first report of hybrid made by crossing inbred lines
1905-07 Williams (Ohio) – Developed the remnant seed breeding plan for maize
1906 Bateson – introduced the term “genetics”
1907 Norton – Substituted the rod row technique for breeding small grains in place of small plot tests
1908 *Nilsson-Ehle – Proposed the multiple factor explanation for inheritance of color in wheat pericarp
1908-09 Hardy (England) and
Weinberg (Germany) – Developed law of equilibrium for populations
1908-10 East – Published his work on inbreeding
1909 East – Proposed the idea of multiple alleles multiple alleles at a locus
Shull – Practiced extensive crossing of maize inbreds to produce hybrids
Garrod – Published book “Inborn errors in metabolism”
1910 Morgan – discovered genes on chromosomes
1910 Bruce, Keeble and Pellew – Proposed theory for hybrid vigor due to favorable dominant genes
Wood and Stratton – Suggested check plots check plots to correct for soil variability in yield trials
1911 Collins and Kempton – Demonstrated linkage linkage in maize
Mercer and Hall – Introduced questions about number, plot shape and size, and replications in field trials
1912 Jennings – Selfing reduces heterozygosity by one-half each generation
Harris – Suggested the use of Chi-square for testing the goodness of fit for segregation ratios
1913 Sturtevant – Provided the experimental basis for the concept of linkage vs. map distance
1916 Jones and Gilman – Released a yellows resistant cabbage
Winkler – Introduced the term “genome”
Shull – Introduced the term “heterosis heterosis” to replace “heterozygosis”
1917 McFadden – Described wheat-rye hybrids (triticale)
Jones – Proposed that hybrid vigor was due to linkage of favorable dominant alleles; developed the first commercial hybrid of maize, ëBurr-Leamingí (4-way hybrid)
Winge – Proposed the theory of polyploid origin of plant species
1918 Sakamura – Classified chromosome numbers in wheat species
Fisher – Introduced the ideas of quantitative inheritance and correlation
1920 East and Jones – Produced the first tobacco cultivar by hybridization
Jones – Proposed the 4-way hybrid for commercial cultivars
Hayes et al. – Successfully transferred durum stem rust resistance to bread wheat in the famous cross of Marquis x Iumillo
Blakeslee – Discovered trisomics in Datura

1921 – 1940

1921 Hayes and Stakman – Suggested races of stem rust
Blakeslee – Coined the term “monosomic monosomic” for diploid missing one chromosome
*Wright – Published “Biometrical relations between parent and offspring”
1922 Sax – suggested the ëAí genome of bread wheat might be related to that in a diploid species
*Harland and Pope – Described the backcross breeding technique for small grains
Bridges – Discovered duplications, deficiencies and translocations in chromosomes
1925 Sturtevant – Found first chromosome inversion
Fisher – Introduced analysis of variance and other statistical methods
1926 Sumner – Isolated the first enzyme in crystalline form (protein)
Percival – Explained the origin of polyploid bread wheat
Pioneer Hi-bred Corn Co. – First seed company to organize for maize breeding
1927 Hayes and Garber – Published the book “Breeding crop plants”
*Muller – Reported artificial mutations in animals by X-rays
Craigie – Suggested how new races of rust formed through hybridization and mutation
1928 Griffin – discovered genetic transformations in bacteria
1928 Stadler – Described the mutagenic effects of X-rays in barley
1929 McClintock – First to report and number 10 chromosomes in maize
Nishiyama – Published extensive studies on the cytogenetics of Avena
1930 McFadden – Reported the successful transfer of stem rust resistance from tetraploid to hexaploid wheat
Stadler – Presented evidence of differential response of maize genes to radiation treatment
1931 Stern, Creighton and McClintock – Provided the cytological proof of crossing-over
1932 Davis – Suggested the inbred-variety cross method for testing maize inbreds
Jenkins and Brunson – Used the topcross topcross method to give comparative tests for combining ability
1933 Rhoades – Discovered cytoplasmic sterility in maize
Morgan – Awarded Nobel Prize for theory of the gene
1934 Dustin – Discovered colchicine
1935 Vavilov – Contributed much to knowledge of species origin in “The scientific bases of plant breeding”
1936 Fisher – Published book “Statistical methods”
1937 Nebel and Ruttle – Used colchicine to double chromosome number
Dobzhansky – Published book “Genetics and the origin of species”
1939 Sears – Described chromosomal observations from cytogenetic study of wheat
Harvey – Showed that different genotypes of maize and tomato have different nutrient requirements
1940 Harlan – Compared methods in barley breeding; used bulk breeding bulk breeding

1941 – 1960

1941 Beadle and Tatum – Published their classic study on the biochemical genetics of Neurospora
1942 Atkins and Mangelsdorf – Suggested the use of isogenic lines for comparative studies of plant characters
1943 Jones and Clarke – Described the inheritance of male sterility in onion; first use of male sterility in commercial hybrid production
1944 Avery, MacLeod and McCarty – Described the transforming principle and suggested that DNA, not protein, is the hereditary material
1945 *Hull – Proposed recurrent selection recurrent selection
1946 Muller – Received Nobel Prize for his contribution to radiation genetics (should have been shared by Stadler)
Delbruck and Bailey – Demonstrated genetic recombination in bacteriophage
Lederberg and Tatum – Demonstrated genetic recombination in bacteria
Auerbach and Robson – Showed that chemicals could induce mutations
1947 Gustafsson – Presented an extensive summary of mutation breeding in Sweden
1948 Borvin, Vendrely and Vendrely – Showed that the quantity of DNA and chromosome number were related
Frandsen and Frandsen – Described the polycross polycross method in detail (the method had been used before)
1949 Chase – Outlined the use of monoploids monoploids in maize to derive inbred lines
Comstock et al. – Suggested reciprocal (half-sib) recurrent selection
Green and Green – Described crossing over between alleles at the lz locus of Drosophila
1949-52 Comstock and Robinson – Made important contributions to quantitative genetics
1950 McClintock – Discovered the Ac-Ds system in maize
1951 Kihara – Reported the first cytoplasmic male sterility in wheat
1952 Zinder and Lederberg – Described transduction in Salmonella
1953 Watson, Crick and Wilkins – Proposed a model for the structure of DNA
1955 Benzer – Demonstrated fine structure of the genetic material of phage T4 of E. coli; coined the terms “cistron”, “recon” and “muton”
1956 Demerec and Hartman – showed that gene order and biochemical sequence were related in certain instances
Ochoa, Kornberg et al. – Synthesized RNA and DNA polymers
1957 Taylor, Woods and Hughes – Made the first successful attempt to determine the mechanism of chromosomal duplication using tritiated thymidine and autoradiography
1958 Beadle, Tatum and Lederberg – Received the Nobel Prize for their work in biochemical genetics
Sanger – Received the Nobel Prize for being the first to determine the sequence of amino acids in a protein molecule (insulin)
1959 Ochoa and Kornberg – Received the Nobel Prize for their research on the in vitro synthesis of nucleic acids

1961 – Present

1962 Rachel Carson – Published ‘Silent Spring’ which led to the phase out of DDT; credited with beginning the environmental movement which led to the creation of the EPA in 1970. The EPA has affected agriculture since chemicals applied to crops (i.e. pesticides, herbicides, growth regulators) have to meet EPA standards
1970 Berg, Cohen and Boyer – introduced recombinant DNA techniques
1970 Borlaug – won the Nobel peace prize for his contribution to the Green Revolution through the development of high-yielding, dwarf wheat cultivars used widely in Asia in the 1960s). The Green revolution changed agriculture in third world countries such as Mexico, Pakistan, and India, and is credited with saving millions of people from starvation worldwide
1977 Chilton et al. – Discovered plant transformation using Agrobacterium tumefaciens published in the paper “Stable incorporation of plasmid DNA into higher plant cells: the molecular basis of crown gall tumorigenesis.” The ease of Agrobacterium-mediated transformation has made it possible for researchers to stably transform many species of plants
1982 GMO – the first genetically modified organism was used to produce human insulin
1986 Mullis – published the paper “Specific Enzymatic Amplification of DNA In vitro – the Polymerase Chain Reaction” on the invention of PCR, for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1993
1987 Klein, Wolf, Wu and Sanford – invented particle bombardment for transformation of cells, published in the paper “High-velocity microprojectiles for delivering nucleic acids into living cells.” Particle bombardment can be used on many species that are not amenable to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation; also used for transient expression assays, saving time for researchers by allowing them to check whether their construct is working prior to attempting to produce stable transformants
1987 Montreal Protocol – One aspect of the Montreal protocol was the phase-out of Methyl-bromide, a widely used soil fumigant effective in control of pathogens and insects. Bromine was first implicated in ozone depletion by Yung et al in 1980. Had a large impact on agriculture and lead to research on methyl-bromide alternatives
1990 GMO – genetically modified organism used to produce chymosin, an enzyme used in cheese-making
1993 Monsanto – used GMO to produce BST (Posilac)
1994 FlavrSavr tomato – the first genetically modified crop plant was introduced
1995 Bt corn – GMO corn credited with reducing pesticide use and crop loss to insects
1996 Roundup Ready soybean – GMO soybeans credited with reducing herbicide use and yield reduction to weed competition
1998 Fitch, Manshardt, Gonsalves and Slightom – commercial release of the first plant-pathogen resistant GMO plant, the ‘Rainbow’ and ‘Sunup’ cultivars of papaya having resistance to Papaya Ringspot Virus. This release was a huge success for GMOs, and saved the Hawaiian Papaya industry
1998 Fire and Mello – Discovery of RNA interference in C. elegans. Waterhouse, Graham and Wang discovered RNAi in plants the same year. RNAi has allowed many studies on gene function and may be useful for producing resistance to disease
2000 Arabidopsis Genome Initiative – First complete plant genome sequenced using the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana. The genome sequence has been used to compare Arabidopsis genes with those of crop plant species to determine the function of previous unknown genes
2009 Schnable et al – Sequence of the first crop genome (Zea mays) published