Plant Mutation Breeding

Introduction

Fig. 1: Headquarters of Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA), where the Binadhan rice variety is invented. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

In 2010, more than 800 million people worldwide were under food insecurity. [1]

Plant Mutation Breeding

To counteract some of the effects of food insecurity, various countries around the world are using plant mutation breeding to cultivate new plant breeds are more immune to pests and harsh climate conditions. [2]

Plant mutation breeding is the use of radiation on seeds of a plant, which in turn induces mutations. These mutations can take the form of desired traits, such as the ones mentioned earlier. Mutation breeding is particularly nice because it can target specific defects of an plant that would be otherwise immaculate, and it doesnt sacrifice any existing characteristics. [3]

Plant Mutation Breeding in Countries

We will use 2 countries as case studies - Bangladesh and Mali.

In Bangladesh, 34.3 million tonnes of rice are produced and consumed, making it the fourth largest rice producer and consumer in the world. The Bangladeshi people live off of rice. For most Bangladeshi people, a meal is not a meal if it does not include rice. With a projected population of 238 million by 2050, this puts immense pressure on rice production. [4]

As a result, Bangladesh has created a new variety of rice called Binadhan-11. Invented by the Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA), shown in Fig. 1, Binadhan-11 is the product of plant mutation breeding, and it has several benefits: a shorter growing time, and the ability to reproduce more rice. [5] Notably, the effects of the mutation include an average yield of 4.88 tons per hectare, in comparison to the non-mutant variety with an average yield of 4.05 tons per hectare. This is around a 20% increase in yield. [6] As a result, farmers are also able to make more money - there are many stories where farmers make enough money now such that they have ambitions to send their kids to college abroad. This virtuous cycle will only bring further prosperity to the nation, as the people get healthier and their education levels increase.

In Mali, the massive rise in population coupled with droughts and poor weather has led to a crisis. This crisis has implications for both the people's health and economic prosperity.

Fortunately, the use of plant mutation breeding on sorghum has led to varieties that have greater tolerance to drought, high protein value, shorter growing period, and higher yields of 37% compared to wild types. [7] On a national level, this would translate to at least an increase of 10% in the production of sorghum. A huge contributor of these nuclear efforts is the Standard Neutron Irradiation Facility (SNIF), which provides plant breeders with a pure source of fast neutrons in pool-type reactors. Other sources of irradiation are X-rays and gamma rays.

Conclusion

Overall, nuclear energy through the use-case of plant mutation breeding has generated more abundant and resistant yields of food. This food is used to feed growing populations around the world, and also stimulate the rural economy to improve the livelihoods of farmers.

© Andrew Gan. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.

References

[1] R. Pérez-Escamilla and A. M. Segall-Corréa, "Food Insecurity Measurement and Indicators," Rev. Nutr. Caminas, 21 (Suppl.), 15s (2008).

[2] Q. Y. Shu, B.P. Forster, and H. Nakagawa, "Principles and Applications of Plant Mutation Breeding," in Plant Mutation Breeding and Biotechnology, ed. by Q. Y. Shu, B. P. Forster and H. Nakagawa (CABI Publishing, 2012).

[3] R. Beyaz and M. Yildiz, "The Use of Gamma Irradiation in Plant Mutation Breeding," in Plant Engineering, ed. by S. Jurić (IntechOpen, 2017).

[4] I. J. Shelley et al., "Rice Cultivation in Bangladesh: Present Scenario, Problems, and Prospects," J. Intl. Cooper. Agric. Devel. 14, 20 (2016).

[5] Md. R. I. Akondo et al., "Growth and Yield Performance of Bina Released Six Promising Aman Rice Varieties of Bangladesh," Asian Plant Res. J. 6, 18 (2020).

[6] M. H. Rahman et al., "Comparative Profitability and Impact of Bina Developed Aman Mutant Rice Binadhan-7 with Non-Mutant Variety in Bangladesh," Asian Res. J. Agric. 14, No. 3, 11 (2021), p 1060.

[7] L. Hoffmann, Jr. and W. L. Rooney, "Sorghum Improvement for Yield," in Sorghum: A State of the Art and Future Perspectives, 1st Ed., ed. by I. A Ciampitti and P. V. Vara Prasad (Am. Soc. of Agronomy, 2019).