Exploring Phenotypic and Genotypic Diversity and Freedom to Operate in Commercially Available Carrot Cultivars

Over the past 50 years, the freedom to use plant genetic diversity has become increasingly complicated by a variety of intellectual property rights (IPR). While the majority of these protections have been in agronomic crops, there is an increasing use of IPR in horticultural crops as well. This trend impacts plant breeders’ and farmers’ freedom to operate and the ability to use, access and share plant genetic diversity. We examined what freedom to operate looks like in a single crop: carrot, beginning with a set of 142 commercially available carrot cultivars. Three datasets were collected: 1) phenotypic diversity on root and shoot characteristics of each cultivar grown on two organic farms in 2013 and 2014; 2) Illumina genotype by sequencing information for each cultivar; and 3) an accounting of any form of legal protection or restrictions associated with each cultivar that may impact future breeding efforts. These datasets were used to map clusters of phenotypic and genotypic diversity in carrot, overlaid by data indicating where this diversity may be used and where this diversity is restricted for breeding. Cultivars comprising all of the different market classes in carrot were planted. There was variation in root phloem color ranging from light orange to dark orange, purple, red, yellow, and white. Additionally, there were several different types of use restriction placed on carrot cultivars including contracts, "bag tag" licenses, and utility patents. In order to demonstrate the effect of intellectual property rights on plant breeding within this crop, and to ensure at least some of this diversity remains available into the future, we created eight synthetic populations using the 87 cultivars that had freedom to operate out of the 142 cultivars included in the study. The eight synthetic populations were developed based on market class and root color. The market class populations were classified as Nantes, Danvers, Chantenay, and Parisienne, and are meant to represent those root shapes. The root color populations are red, purple, white, and yellow. Populations were developed from a synthetic of intermated roots that were composed of 3–19 cultivars with replicated roots of each cultivar. These populations are now in the Syn2 generation. Understanding access to and utilization of diverse germplasm will help facilitate the development of new cultivars with useful traits for farmers and will ensure genetic diversity essential for resilient agricultural systems.