HortResearch’s work is centred around 17 science programme areas. There are three teams of genomics researchers and around 80 molecular biologists working within the organisation. Half of those are concerned with fruit production projects including work in pests and disease, and others are working to capture and enhance health properties, flavours and fragrances from various plant types.
Eight years ago, HortResearch began to collect all of the capability needed to study genomics; the people, the tools and the glasshouses. More than NZ$20 million (£8.03m) has been ploughed into the project, the lion’s share coming from revenues from the company’s established science business activities.
“Genomics is more clearly defined within HortResearch now,” says Hellens. “Genomics has been fully integrated and has become central to everything that goes on here.”
Scientists have worked towards discovering gene sequences, or Express Seqence Tags (ESTs), which give clues about the genes involved in creating the traits that breeders are looking to either enhance or eliminate in plants or fruit.
“We were essentially gathering our toys,” says Hellens. “Two years ago, we had got them together and there was work going on here, there and everywhere, so the next stage began, to identify the important things to work on.
“We talked to breeders to find out what they wanted, then we came back to the labs to try to demonstrate what could be done through the process of genomics. Our aim from this point on is to allow the results we generate to speak, rather than talk about it ourselves.
“Genomics adds science to the art of plant breeding, and takes some of the guesswork out of it,” he adds.
There are two areas that the genomics team is most focused on; the requirements of the producer, and the demands of consumers. The farmer wants to know the cost of production, water and spraying requirements, disease and pest resistance, yield potential and harvest dates.
The consumer wants a completely different set of traits to those desired by growers. They don’t care if it is easy to grow, pack or pest resistant; they just want health, flavour, novelty and convenience.
“There was an imbalance between the concentration of genomics work on the consumer, and that undertaken around production issues. There had always been far more interest in production, mainly because it was at the very start of things and, to the scientific sector, the consumer looked far more challenging.”
But genomics can make a significant contribution to solving some of the key food-related issues in the developed world. Through the development of the science to assist in the production of healthier, tastier foods, it is easy to argue that the world would be in a better position to tackle obesity.
“Our work can build understanding of the healthy properties of anthocyanins and antioxidants, which are part of a complicated pathway of compounds. We can work out how that pathway is regulated, as we can for tannins and flavenoids,” says Hellens.
But the intention is to balance the focus across the supply chain, not only to give breeders and growers varieties they want to grow, but also to develop varieties, protected by intellectual property rights, that can offer a specific and scientific point of difference in international consumer markets.
“As we start to gather more information on crop genomes sequences, we can add this knowledge to the existing body of work on plants in general, leading to an exponential increase in discovery in both areas of research,” says Hellens.
HortResearch scientists are using cross-discipline databases to accurately determine the biochemical pathways that create the individual colours, flavours and fragrances found in fruit and flowers. Hellens uses apples as an example. “The apple is actually a swollen petal that has expanded around its ovary. It is a very unusual fruit in doing that. We knew a lot about the coloration of fruit, as that has been worked on for thousands of years, but it took us three years to find out exactly how apples become the colour they do. This is not just a case of understanding the pathway, but also knowing how that pathway is regulated. Plants might need 10 enzymes to make a colour, but one gene regulates it and decides whether it is red, blushed or striped.”
The company has identified and patented the biochemical pathway responsible for the distinctive aroma of green apples, largely for use in fruit flavours, fragrances and insect control agents. It is also developing a bright red apple from a strain native to Kazakhstan, which its commercial partners believe has huge market potential. “We have been attempting to work out what had changed in the DNA levels to make the fruit go bright red,” says Hellens.
“If a breeding programme had tried to produce red apples, there would have been any number of issues that it is impossible to know as a breeder. The variety is flowery and stringent, so the trick is to discover how those attributes can be changed while retaining the desirable colour. It’s a slow process, and I would not want to make predictions, but we are definitely making progress.”
The company had already achieved great things in fruit colour. Years before its genomics programme was launched, HortResearch bred the naturally golden kiwifruit cultivar Actinidia chinensis. Golden kiwis are still seen as the biggest innovation in kiwifruit production since the fruit was first grown commercially 30 years ago.
And Jazz, the Enza-owned apple brand that is now starting to make serious inroads in the UK, started life in 1985 as a trial cross at HortResearch. The fact that commercial production has spread so quickly overseas is a triumph.
The scientific input does not stop with varieties, of course. HortResearch carries out some groundbreaking research into apple dwarfing, which it hopes will one day help fundamentally change the way the NZ industry grows its apples.
“At present, the global apple industry is dominated by the use of ‘M9’ rootstock” says Hellens. “We believe there is huge scope for rootstocks that are more tailored to specific cultivars and growing regions. Also, there is great potential for rootstocks that confer greater pest resistance.” says Helens
The addition of genomics to the breeding ability of HortResearch brings a new dimension to potential partners. “Breeders can now see precisely how genomics can be used to aid their work. It used to be thought that genomics was strictly a scientific discipline, more suited to the lab than the orchard. Now all that is changed, and genomics is recognised as a key plank in breeding new and better fruit cultivars. We don’t compete with breeders, we work with them to achieve common goals,” Hellens adds.
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