T
H
E
D
N
A
O
F
S
E
S
V
A
N
D
E
R
H
A
V
E
Innovation
As the creation and seed production of a new variety of
sugar beet by SESVanderHave may take up to twelve
years before it reaches the market, the permanent and
complex process of improving the performance of sugar
beet to field and agronomical conditions by breeding
delivers products to farmers and the industry at an ever
increasing rate.
This permanent evolution of the performance of the
varieties is a combination of the technical advances seen
in plant biology and the company’s focus and passion for
delivering new technologies, new germplasm, new traits
and new seed treatments into varieties dedicated to the
customer’s needs.
Dedicated team of experts
With more than 15% of turn-over reinvested in Research
and Development, SESVanderHave demonstrates a true
commitment to developing a competitive agriculture.
SESVanderHave’s seeds are widely recognised for their
quality and reliability thanks to modern methods and tools
developed and used by the dedicated team of experts at
SESVanderHave.
Germplasm, crosses, trials and field observations remain
the basic components for breeding improved seed.
However, biotechnology has become a major complement
to the traditional activities of breeding. In parallel with this,
substantial advances are being made thanks to automation
- computers as well as high-tech growth-rooms - and
greenhouse facilities. The major progress is the result of
the application of DNA technologies, enabling the analysis,
sequencing, use and manipulation of DNA with the aim of
improving the genetic makeup of the varieties produced.
SESVanderHave’s seeds are widely recognised for their
quality and reliability thanks to modern methods and tools
developed and used by the dedicated team of experts.
DNA is the constituent of genes, containing the genetic
information, understanding its organisation to better
combine genes in new, higher performing varieties is at the
heart of our breeding and biotechnology today.
Innovation
Continuous improvement
SESVanderHave is making best use of the advances in
plant biology: acting indirectly or directly on the DNA is a
major goal of the biotechnologies in sugar beet breeding,
a collection of tools enabling us to (i) analyse and screen
DNA information for the traits expressed in the sugar
beet, (ii) manage and select genetic combinations and
recombinations based on actual genetic information in
individual plants or in populations crossed by the breeder
(iii) to modify the genetic information (and thus the trait
encoded by the genes) by adding novel pieces of genetic
information, or by using random or targeted mutagenesis
to change the genetic information resident in the genome
to alter a trait.
Another component of what is traditionally called
biotechnology refers to the application of cell biology,
including the well established methods of plant micropropagation. These, at SESVanderHave, include
proprietary methods of cell culture to regenerate a whole
functional plant from individual cells, the DNA of which can
be manipulated using DNA modification or mutagenesis
techniques. This adds considerable opportunities for
novel traits to the crossing techniques that breeders at
SESVanderHave continue to improve.
Many innovative tools have been developed to allow precise
and fast measure of trait expression, field performance,
seed treatments or processes in the seed or the plants.
Of course, the breeders and
specialists have a large collection
of other technologies to help and
support the processes of measuring
the phenotype, characterizing traits, collecting data and
deciphering complex pathways that are the keys to the
desired trait for which we are breeding. Many innovative
tools have been developed to allow precise and fast
measure of trait expression, field performance, seed
treatments or processes in the seed or the plants.
Pioneer in the use of DNA markers
SESVanderHave has been pioneering the use of DNA
markers since the inception of the technology, back to
the time of RFLP’s, when differences in the length of DNA
fragments at particular locations on the chromosome
(‘polymorphism’ of restriction fragments) were correlated
to the phenotype for certain traits. SESVanderHave was
one of the first companies to develop a genetic map for
sugar beet, anchoring known DNA fragments relative
to each other according to the segregation data from
crosses between parents bearing known fragments. With
this, breeders at SESVanderHave started to have a view
on the organisation of the chromosomes and started
screening the genome with selected probes from DNA
spread along the beet chromosomes. SESVanderHave
discovered some that could be used as markers for traits
of vital commercial importance like the resistance to the
virus causing rhizomania. With the rapid evolution of these
technologies, including the ability to directly amplify the
DNA fragments of interest instead of detecting it on a
gel by hybridisation techniques, our ability to test more
markers in more regions of the genome has accelerate and
allow to tag other interesting areas of the genome linked
to a variety of traits, including a number of resistances to
fungal diseases which have been used to improve products.
SNP’s as foundation of the new marker platform
Progress will now rely on Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms
(SNP’s), a marker system that can differentiate individual
plants based on variations detected at the level of a single
nucleotide base, the ultimate constituent units of the DNA
in the genomic sequence. Such variations are present
in large abundance in the genomes of higher organisms
including plants. This Single Nucleotide Polymorphism is
the foundation of the new marker platform that is being
developed at SESVanderHave. More markers are being
discovered as a denser map is developed, allowing the
scientists to reveal differences between individual plants.
For any region of the genome it will now be possible to
define multiple markers showing polymorphism in any set
of germplasm.
Because these differences are based on single base
changes, the sophisticated assay and detection method to
spot differences at given points between individual plants
will translate in a simple analysis of a fluorescent signal
‘on the screen’. SESVanderHave has invested substantially
to set up a fully robotised high throughput platform to
apply its proprietary SNP’s; this platform has a capacity
of many millions of points of data per year – cheaper and
faster than current technology. This allows testing genetic
information on tens of thousands of plants to select for
given traits at all stages of the breeding process. Breeders
have developed in parallel more statistical capacities to
exploit these data with more sophisticated analyses and
more associations to the phonotypical data.
A major project was launched last year to increase the
number of proprietary SNP’s using the resources of proprietary and public sugar beet sequences. Sophisticated DNA
sequencing tools provided by service companies produce
sequence data from many breeding lines to discover SNP’s
in hundreds of new loci spread over the genome. Complex
traits (QTL’s) involving several regions of the genome will
be more suited to precision mapping and identifying markers for yield, quality related traits, abiotic stress and agronomic related traits by association mapping will stimulate
genetic progress in new varieties.
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP’s) can differentiate
individual plants based on variations detected at the level
of a single nucleotide base.
Genome sequencing
It is a commitment from SESVanderHave to develop its
own sugar beet whole genome sequencing project aimed
at determining the order of the nucleotide bases in large
portions of the genome and to discover the organisation of
these fragments relative to each other using sophisticated
bioinformatics to line up sequences of millions of
fragments from an elite genotype.
This leads to a true physical map where large stretches
of sequences of genetic information are being deciphered
and, to some extent, genes will begin to be identified by
mining all available genomic data banks using a variety
of automated annotation tools. Research centres of
excellence will be collaborating with SESVanderHave to
consolidate progress and results in a dedicated genomic
network.
From the so-called QTL fine-mapping programmes,
SESVanderHave will be able to target more specific
regions of the genome for annotation to find potential
candidate genes. It will also allow to identify regulatory
sequences and genes yetundescribed in sugar beet.
These will also be valuable for transgenic programmes
and will provide opportunities to discover new traits that
can be developed in sugar beet, or possibly enhanced by
classical mutation technologies.
Substantial advances are being made thanks to
automation - computers as well as high-tech growthrooms - and greenhouse facilities.
For important pathways, this can rapidly lead
to identification and isolation of
actual candidate genes that would
be studied by over-expression
or knock-out approaches using
Innovation
transgenic sugar beet. Alternatively, targeted mutation
strategies will be applied to specific key genes encoding
essential functions in order to enhance the expression or
modify the regulation pattern with the support of expert
academic groups and biotech companies. An example
would be the carbohydrate pathway related genes, which
could be altered to allow a dramatic increase in sucrose
accumulation in the tap root tissues.
While molecular breeding using markers will remain
central to genetic progress of a field crop like sugar beet,
the direct transformation of certain genes into the beet
will be essential to maintain its competitiveness relative
to sugarcane, and to match the economic, environmental
and industrial objectives for the crop. SESVanderHave is
also working with industrial partners at alternative uses of
the productive potential of beet for other purposes than
sucrose production.
Single cell based regeneration system
One particular technology developed by SESVanderHave
is the single cell based regeneration system exploiting
the totipotency of stomatal guard cells, a feature of these
cells quite specific to the Beta species.
SESVanderHave spends considerable resources and
effort on improving its understanding of the germination
process, the factors that produce good vigour and allow
a good storability of the seed for a given period of time.
With the help of accurate measurement methods or
DNA technologies, work is ongoing to identify genes and
processes That regulate these traits and so allowing
optimising seed quality. This can for example lead to
new markers that ultimately allow SESVanderHave to
guarantee even better quality seed to our customers.
The SESVanderHave seed technology experts continue
to propose new improvements and developments to
the evolving pelleting and coating technologies used
by the company. Successful application of the seed
priming technology by the seed factory teams to large
amounts of commercial seed from SESVanderHave has
again demonstrated how quickly and professionally the
company can bring to the market novel innovative seed
products. These SESVanderHave seeds deliver more
homogenous sugar beet crops with higher yield potential,
ultimately ensuring the progress towards a more efficient,
competitive and productive sugar beet processing industry.
With this system, numerous genetically modified plantlets
can be produced rapidly (10 months) in a predictable
fashion allowing SESVanderHave to screen rapidly for
novel traits or to study particular genes, their mode of
action and their function as part of academic collaboration
to better understand the functioning of the whole plant and
the biological processes leading to enhanced performance.
Novel traits such as viral resistances, low fertilizer
requirement, improved water usage, enhanced sugar
accumulation, control of flowering are being studied and
evaluated for their application in new, higher performing
products. Herbicide resistance is already on the market
and opens avenues to more novel traits in many markets in
the next decade.
Seed biology
Beside the vast amount of breeding targets now
making use of those innovative biotechnologies,
With more than 15% of turn-over reinvested in Research
and Development, SESVanderHave demonstrates a true
commitment to developing agriculture.
120200V2
SESVanderHave also has isolated its own regulatory
sequences, such as tissue-specific promoters which can
drive a high expression of genes in given regions of the
beet. This will allow SESVanderHave to focus expression
where and when needed in the plant and the seed.