Trait Stacking Opens Up World of Possibilities for Plant Breeding

Trait stacking can help with everything from nutrition to weed control in the plant breeding world.

Trait stacking isn’t a new technology when it comes to plant breeding. But with new technologies such as gene editing, it has opened a whole new world for trait stacking and is allowing those in the agriculture industry to build upon the trait stacking work they’ve been doing for decades already.

“With the introduction of Roundup Ready soybeans, we’ve seen multiple stacks, especially over the last 10 or 15 years, of different herbicide (resistant traits) to help combat some of the more problematic weed issues,” Jeremy Ross, professor and soybean extension agronomist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s Cooperative Extension Service, says during the March 29 episode of Seed Speaks. “Without those traits being stacked, we wouldn’t be able to control some of these more problematic weeds.”

And while for farmers disease, pest and weed resistance, along with yield may be the most important traits for them, consumers have other traits they’re interested in. Michael Dzakovich, a research plant physiologist with the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, works at the Children’s Nutrition Research Center and sees nutritional opportunities.