Do-it-yourself Molecular Biology for Plant Breeding: Low-cost Tools for Developing Countries

Technological advances in the field of genomics and phenomics in the past decade are cause for great optimism that the global challenge of sustainable food security can be met through crop improvements. Yet the task of transferring knowledge and methodologies from developed to developing countries remains difficult. Our group, the Plant Breeding and Genetics Laboratory of the FAO/IAEA Joint Programme, aims to assist developing countries in their efforts to improve crops through the use of induced mutations and associated biotechnologies. Using current high-throughput technologies from TILLING to Next Generation Sequencing, we are attempting to understand better and optimise mutagenesis in diverse crop genomes. At the same time, we are reverse-engineering and adapting assays to be better suited for developing countries that have varying levels of infrastructure and human capacity. How can this be accomplished? Basic issues need to be considered when developing methodologies such as costs, lack of consistent power, limited availability of equipment and reagents, and issues with hazardous waste disposal. Here we describe low cost and low toxicity methods for the collection of plant leaf material and subsequent extraction of DNA. Drying leaf material so that it can be stored at room temperature precludes the need for continuous power and high energy usage -80 degrees C freezers. Low cost and low toxicity DNA extraction can be performed for less than 20 US cents per sample. Combined with low cost methods for SNP and small indel discovery using self-extracted nucleases, low to medium throughput genotyping and TILLING can be implemented in many laboratories. Future challenges include reducing the cost and toxicity of agarose gel electrophoresis and subsequent imaging.