Evolution of Genetics and Plant Breeding

Since the beginning of agriculture in approximately 10,000 BC, people have consciously or unconsciously selected plants with superior characteristics for the cultivation of future generations. However, there is controversy regarding the time when breeding became a science. Some believe that this occurred after Mendel’s findings, while others argue that it occurred even before the “era of genetics.”

One of the most important contributions to plant breeding was artificial plant hybridization, which permitted the gathering of advantageous characteristics into a single genotype. 

Consequently, some dates and events indicate the beginning of this new science, such as August 25, 1964, when R.J. Camerarius published the article “De sex plantarum epístola,” or even 1717, when Thomas Fairchild created the first hybrid plant in England. In addition to those events, J.G. Kolreuter conducted the first scientific experiment on plant hybridization in 1760.

During the nineteenth century, plant breeding had already begun in France, as Louis Vilmorin had developed wheat and sugar beet varieties with progeny tests. However, the monk Gregor Mendel from Brno, Czech Republic, unveiled the secrets of heredity and thus ushered in the “era of genetics,” the fundamental science of plant breeding, at the end of that century.

By placing a few more pieces into the puzzle of this new science, scientists in the first half of the twentieth century knew that something within cells was responsible for heritability. That hypothesis started a process of hypothesis generation and discovery, thus further enabling progress and knowledge accumulation in the field to continue apace. For example, the DNA double helix structure was elucidated in 1953. Twenty years later, in 1973, the discovery of restriction enzymes opened the doors of molecular biology to scientists. The first transgenic plant, wherein a bacterial gene was stably inserted into a plant genome, was created in 1983.

At that time, futuristic predictions about biotechnology contributions were reported in the media by both laymen and scientists, and these created great expectations for their applications. This euphoria was a keynote in the scientific community. Many large and small companies were created in response to the prevailing enthusiasm at the time, although most later went bankrupt (Borém and Miranda, 2013). The failures occurred because most biotechnology predictions did not materialize according to the initially predicted schedule, and thus skepticism led many of those entrepreneurs to face reality and the investors to relocate their resources.Currently, the results of many earlier predictions have materialized which has led to a consensus that the benefits of biotechnology will have greater impacts on breeding programs each year. Consequently, new companies are being established under the prospects of a highly promising market.

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