Historic Plant Breeding Has Become More High-Tech
Published: Friday, August 15, 2025
The following is from Jeff Burbrink, LaGrange County Extension educator ag and natural resources.
Through the centuries, people have learned to breed plants to help them produce more food, fiber, and for aesthetic purposes. The first plants breeding efforts began 9,000-11,000 years ago, mostly by way of selecting the seed from the most productive wild plants and replanting them the following season.
About 5,000 years ago, many of the modern-day food plants began to emerge in both Old and New World, as people learned how to intentionally crossbreed plants. Modern-day tomato, corn, bean, melon and brassica families of plants look much different than their ancestors did at that time.
Modern corn, for example, came from a plant called teosinte, a native plant of Mexico, which produces about a dozen kernels on what we would now call the tassel. Modern corn plants, whether it's sweet corn, field corn, white corn, popcorn, blue corn and one of the many other types of corn, can trace their humble roots back to these ancient plant breeders' efforts.
Even more fascinating is the 2000-year journey in the Mediterranean region that led to the creation of many of our favorite garden plants. The genus Brassica (mustard), is a large family of plants, with three particular species of this genus providing much of our food:
• B. oleracea (e.g., kale, collard greens, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, broccoli, cauliflower),
• B. napus (e.g. rutabaga, rape)
• B. rapa (e.g., turnip, Chinese cabbage, bok choi)
All of these brassica species can cross pollenate within their species. For example, kale, kolhrabi and brussell sprouts can cross pollinate. The fact they can cross pollinate does not affect the taste of the crop. If the seeds were saved, the second generation offspring would be some odd combination of the two parents, and may or may not be very desirable or tasty. The reason they most likely will not cross pollenate is because their flowers do not open at the same time in most seasons.
Cucurbits (melons, squash, pumpkins, cucumber) are another interesting story. Most of the Cucurbitae family of plants that humans cultivate come from 3 genera: Cucurbita, Citrillus, and Cucumis. Within the Cucurbita genus, there 4 groups of primary interest:
• The maxima species, which contains winter squash, buttercup squash, banana squash and some pumpkins
• The argyrosperma species which contains the cushaw pumpkin
• The moschato species, or butternut squash group
• The pepo species, a large group containing summer squash, acorn squash, most of the pumpkins, zucchini and spaghetti squash.
You often see oddly shaped or off-color gourds that come up from volunteer plants. These are the result of cross-pollination that can occur between some members of the 4 species named above. All members within a species can cross with each other, so buttercup squash and banana squash, both members of the maxima species, can freely cross-pollinate. Likewise, summer squash and most pumpkins can cross-pollinate, because they are in the pepo species.
Complicating things further, some of these 4 species can cross with other species within the Cucurbita genus. For instance, pepo can cross with argyrosperma and moschato, and moschato will cross with maxima.
You might be surprised to learn that petunias, tobacco, ground cherry, pepper, potato and eggplant are all in the Solanacease family. Each of these plants has been groomed by plant breeders over the centuries to emphasize various desirable characteristics for humans to eat or enjoy.
This incredible story, spanning more than 5,000 years, shows that humans have been tinkering with the genetics of our food and flowers for a long time. While some people are very concerned about genetically modified organisms (GMOs), I will contend these new techniques are just a way for us to do the same thing our ancestors did, but in a more precise, direct, and faster way.
In fact, if you really think about it, even the plants that are labeled "non-GMO" really are GMOs, even heirloom varieties like Brandywine or Black Cherry tomatoes. No plant we cultivate in 2025 has avoided human tinkering. GMO is not really a very accurate label.
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