On Tuesday January 13th researcher Richard Finkers presented a first version of the onion genome to the largest scientific congress of genomics for plants and animals: the 'Plant and Animal Genomics (PAG) conference in San Diego. Breeding a new onion breed takes 12 to 16 years now. Companies believe that by knowing the DNA sequence the breeding time can be accelerated by a factor of two.
Wageningen UR is working together with seed company Bejo Zaden and genomics company ServiceXS to determine the DNA sequence of the onion. Onions are an important crop for the Netherlands due to the production of onions and especially onion seeds. Worldwide onions are an important crop as well. In terms of turnover, it is second in line after tomatoes. For many people onions are an important source of vitamins and minerals because onions are a part of many cultures dishes. The breeding of new varieties of onions, which are able to grow in poor soil, can therefore make a significant contribution to the world food supply.
Breeding onions is challenging
Breeding onions is not easy. For example, some varieties of onions are especially suitable for regions with long days, such as in Northern Europe. Those varieties cannot make bulbs in regions around the equator where the days are too short. Crossing interesting properties from cultivars that need long days with varieties that can make bulbs in short days is difficult. All the genes that are involved in the mechanisms for the length of the day have to be together in order for the onion to be able to make a bulb during a certain length of daytime.
Opportunities for breeding
Opportunities for breeding
Knowledge of the genome will enable plant breeders to more quickly select the appropriate onions in order to refine it further. It is helpful that the genes that are involved in the adaptation to day length have already been well researched with potatoes and rice, and in the model plant 'Arabidopsis'. Now that the DNA code has largely been identified, researchers expect that it will be easier to detect similar genes in the onions and thereby simplify crop breeding. "With these results we think that we will be able to accelerate the development of new onion varieties by a factor of two," says Henk Huits, manager marker technology and genomics for Bejo Zaden.
The genome of an onion
The genome of an onion
The onion genome was found relatively late. One of the reasons for this is because onions have a huge amount of DNA. The genome of an onion is five times larger than that of a human. The mapping of that huge genome was only recently made possible by new techniques and analysis tools. "If a technology can work for an onion, it can work for almost anything," says Wilbert from Workum, Director of ServiceXS.
Source: Wageningen UR
Source: Wageningen UR