Home

Doubled Haploid Process in Wheat

Doubled Haploid Process in Wheat

Take a look at the cutting edge genetics, step by step!

  • Seed breeders around the world look for different characteristics in their plants. When breeders grow a plant with their ideal mix of traits, they send the seeds from that plant to Heartland Plant Innovations.
  • Before the mother plant can self-fertilize, the male parts are removed.
  • Within 48 hours of emasculation, there is a brief window of time that the plant can be tricked into thinking it’s been fertilized. Scientists take pollen from a sweet corn plant and apply it to the wheat plant.
  • Thinking she’s been fertilized, the mother plant grows an embryo with only one set of DNA—but only half of hers. But, since that plant can’t reproduce, the embryo must be "rescued."
  • The embryo is transplanted to a surrogate medium in a test tube. To protect the embryo, it’s treated like royalty in a special light chamber during this phase.
  • Next, tough love! No more light chamber. It’s time for harsh winter weather. The baby plants are moved to a cold area to simulate winter for six to eight weeks. (The fancy word for this phase is vernalization.)
  • After vernalization, the baby plants go back to the greenhouses until they grow to full size. Heartland Plant Innovations collects the seeds (that have the identical, doubled DNA of the mother plant) and sends them back to the breeders.