Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116 Page 117 Page 118 Page 119 Page 120 Page 121 Page 122 Page 123 Page 124 Page 125 Page 126 Page 127 Page 128 Page 129 Page 130 Page 131 Page 132 Page 133 Page 134 Page 135 Page 136 Page 137 Page 138 Page 139 Page 140 Page 141 Page 142 Page 143 Page 144 Page 145 Page 146 Page 147 Page 14836 / SEEDWORLD.COM DECEMBER 2016 of themselves and subsequent generations.” Sharbel believes seed companies would be more than compensated for any lost sales in this scenario by the fact they’d be spending far less money to produce seeds with new and better traits — which would likely still be in high demand in the marketplace. “Right now, it takes as many generations to produce these inbred hybrids and perform the necessary crosses,” he says. “Instead of producing these hybrids every eight to 10 gen- erations, you could now produce hybrids in one generation, so it would save companies huge amounts of time and investment to produce these hybrid lines.” The result, Sharbel says, is that seed companies and breeders could concentrate their efforts on developing many different types of crop varieties adapted to specific environmental conditions and/or agricultural and economic needs. This diversity, coupled with the ability to rapidly change seed production, would benefit growers and be a boon to food production overall, he adds. “If it works, then we'll be able to do things like niche breeding, meaning farmers from south- ern Saskatchewan and northern Saskatchewan would get two different kinds of seeds rather than the one-size-fits-all kind of seed they get presently from compa- nies,” Sharbel says. SW FOSTERING TRANSFORMATIVE INNOVATION Maurice Moloney, the executive director and CEO of Global Institute for Food Security (GIFS), says Tim Sharbel’s work in apomixis research fits well with the vision of the institute, which develops transformative technologies with the potential to improve agriculture.  “One of the key pillars of this institute is basically the power of seeds,” notes Moloney. “Whether you’re in the developed or developing world, a major thing is to be able to pack as much power into the seeds so that you decrease input costs and make it simpler for farmers to get high yields.” A breakthrough involving apomixis could help achieve that, he says. Sharbel joined GIFS in 2015 as research chair in seed biology. The institute provides $5 million over five years plus $2 million for capital and renovations to support Sharbel’s work, and matching funding of $5 million is also being sought. Sharbel says his team recently received $2 million from a U.S. venture capital firm. Sharbel is still involved in apomixis research at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research in Germany. Several key members of his team there have been recruited to join Sharbel’s apomixis researchers at GIFS. Sharbel says he plans to have about 20 people working at the Saskatoon lab once renovations are completed at the end of year. “Instead of producing hybrids every eight or 10 generations, you could now produce hybrids in one generation.” — Tim Sharbel