Accelerated high-precision breeding for climate-adapted sugar beet varieties

A paradigm shift is necessary to ensure agricultural productivity, food security, and economic prosperity in the face of climate change, but this is hampered by the current political and regulatory landscape. Examples include the phasing out of established crop protection products under the Common Agricultural Policy (target: 50% reduction by 2030) and current regulations on new genomic technologies (NGTs) such as genome editing (GE). To keep the German and European agriculture and breeding sectors competitive, advanced and sustainable technologies are needed to mitigate the effects of climate change and accelerate the breeding of climate-resilient varieties that maintain crop productivity.

Sugar beet is an important crop, but molecular breeding approaches are challenging due to the long generation time, lengthy selection processes, and lack of efficient genome editing (GE) methods. The medium-sized German breeding company Strube has put together the interdisciplinary project consortium BeetAdapt, which brings together experts in GE (JLU), transformation (IME), biostatistics (UHOH), autonomous phenotyping (IfZ), and sugar beet research. The project is developing a novel set of plant breeding technologies and combinatorial approaches to accelerate the production of climate-adapted sugar beet varieties.

This involves combining state-of-the-art technologies with novel GE methods, high-throughput phenotyping, and phenomic selection, focusing on two biotic and two abiotic traits. For the first time, we will test a novel set of endonucleases in crop plants, combined with an innovative DNA-free transfection protocol based on laser technology. In addition, we will combine innovative thermal and multispectral imaging technologies using drones and novel AI-based models and biostatistical prediction approaches for the phenomic selection of elite varieties, autonomous disease detection, and yield prediction. Equipped with new insights, BeetAdapt will provide a roadmap for the transfer of new technologies into ongoing accelerated breeding programs, thereby increasing the competitiveness of the German breeding sector and the security of supply chains for agricultural products.

The Fraunhofer IME's main tasks in the project are the development of transformation methods for sugar beets, in particular the novel laser-induced shock wave transformation and DNA-free genome editing. We will work on targeted gene modification to promote specific traits such as nematode resistance and drought tolerance in sugar beets, with the aim of adapting sugar beets to climate change.