Saving, Selling Protected Seed Can Land Producers in Hot Water

Originally published in the Feb. 5, 2014, issue

 

By Dallas Duncan

 

Blue Suede blueberries are growing in popularity, but producers who save and sell the plants can face criminal charges.

That’s because Blue Suede is one of many cultivars protected by either patents or the Plant Variety Protection Act of 1970, deeming them intellectual property of their developers. In the case of Blue Suede, that would be the University of Georgia.

The PVPA was written to increase crop varieties and allow for researchers to recoup development costs, said Terry Hollifield, executive director of the Georgia Crop Improvement Association. Under a PVP, which covers most seed-propagated cultivars, farmers can save enough seed to plant back their acreage, but cannot sell seed. Patented plants’ seed or cuttings, such as turfgrasses, cannot be saved or sold.

“Like blueberry farmers, they can’t go out — unless they have a license — and take cuttings off their blueberry plants and plant 40 acres,” said Brent Marable, plant licensing manager for the UGA Research Foundation.

The idea of protecting plants was to get income streaming back into breeding programs, said James Sutton, assistant commissioner for the Department.

“It costs so much to come up with a new variety and it’s so short-lived. A variety may only last three or four years,” he said. “So all that money going to make this new variety, you don’t reap the benefits, especially if you’re just giving away the seed.”

Producers pay royalties when purchasing protected seed. For instance, if UGA developed the fictitious Soybean U34 and licensed it out to be sold, farmers who purchased U34 seed would pay an extra five cents per pound. The five cents goes back to UGA breeding programs, Sutton said.

Producers sign contracts as well, allowing developers to audit their fields and financials to make sure they’re following the law. However, farmers tend to police themselves, Sutton said.

Universities and companies have legal recourse against those who propagate and sell seed illegally and are caught doing so, though most settle out of court, Hollifield said.

He said the analysis tag on seed bags will note whether a variety is protected or not.

There are limitations on how long patents and PVPA protections last, however, usually between 15 and 18 years.

“If I come up with a Georgia green, great peanut variety … it had a PVP, it had a run of about 15 years. If it had a patent, nobody’s growing it after the patent runs out,” Sutton said. “You have a great new variety and it runs for about four or five years, then something takes its place.”

In essence, it’s like smart phones.

“By the time this one is about to go out,they come out with the iPhone 5,” he said. “It’s the same with seed. By the time the patent’s ready to run out, they’ve come out with a new and improved [cultivar].”

And if a variety remains popular after its patent is up, there’s a chance it will still evolve over years of use. Take Silver Queen Corn, for example.

“Silver Queen isn’t like it used to be,” said Alan Lowman, program director for the Department’s Agricultural Inputs Section. “It’s not because nobody has a vested interest in it — nobody is keeping it true to type. Part of the PVP and patent stuff is that you get what you pay for, that varieties stay true.”

It also helps ensure plants are developed to thrive in the Southeast, since royalties from one plant are being used to spur research on others — like Blue Suede blueberries

“Ten years ago, we’re taking peanut money down to Griffin to help blueberries get going. And blueberries have overtaken peaches," Sutton said. “If [the royalties] hadn’t happened, you wouldn’t have the blueberry market like you have now."

Peanut Genome Project to Lead to Faster Development of New Varieties

Originally published in the April 30, 2014, issue

 

By Dallas Duncan

 

Now that the peanut genome has been
sequenced, breeders will be able to create
resistant cultivars at a faster pace using
traditional breeding methods. Photo by
Dallas Duncan

Recent breakthroughs in peanut breeding could significantly decrease the time it takes to develop new cultivars.

 

The International Peanut Genome Initiative, of which University of Georgia’s Scott Jackson was chair, completed sequencing the entire peanut genome this spring.

 

“The state of Georgia produces 40 percent of the US peanuts,” Jackson said. “One of the things we wanted to do was accelerate the improvement of peanuts – get better faster and finding varieties of peanuts with improved traits and characteristics and yield we can provide to the farmers.”

 

And one of the best ways to do that, he said, is to understand the genetics of the peanut itself.

 

“The genome sequence gives us a picture of all the genes in the cultivated peanut in one database,” Jackson said. “Now the hope is that we can use this information to make more informed decisions on what genes to move into improved varieties and how to deploy those, how to stack genes and get improved yield and improved disease resistance.”

 

The peanut joins a list of other organisms with sequenced genomes, including the chicken, peach, rice, soybean and even human, which is only slightly larger than the peanut genome. The peanut genome initiative was funded through commodity groups, shellers, growers and packers, he said.

 

Based on genetic studies, breeders can look at which pieces of DNA correlate with a trait. This leads to using the DNA and not a trait to base selection on, said Peggy Ozias-Akins, horticulture professor at the University of Georgia-Tifton campus.

 

“It’s more long-term to actually select based on the trait,” she said. “If you’ve already shown that DNA is associated with resistance to that disease, then you can still make progress in that year selecting lines out of the population that would carry resistance.”

 

Without a sequenced genome, it could take anywhere from 10 to 20 years to determine what genes control certain traits. Jackson hopes that the sequenced peanut genome will cut that time to less than a decade.

 

“Before, a breeder had to grow the plant for a whole season to see if it contained a particular trait,” said Don Koehler, executive director of Georgia Peanut Commission. “Now after the initial cross takes place … he can look for specific markers to know if a gene is present or not.”

 

The actual sequencing process is like a complicated jigsaw puzzle, Jackson said.

 

“We take the DNA from a plant and chop it up into very small fragments and we sequence those fragments using machines … then we use computer algorithms to try to put it back together in the correct order,” he said.

 

In other words, Jackson said, it’s as if that jigsaw puzzle was a picture of blue sky.

 

The next step uses more computer calculations to determine where the genes are in that puzzle, and tie the genes to a function, such as disease or drought resistance.

 

“The actual figuring out of what the genes do will take a number of years,” Jackson said. “We’re already making progress.”

 

Some of the major diseases affecting Georgia peanuts are tomato spotted wilt virus, white mold and leaf spot.

 

“By finding resistant gene strains in the peanut, the technology will allow for peanut cultivars that will help enhance production on the farm and save the farmer time and money when treating the disease,” Koehler said.