Can a somatic mutation be OSSI Pledged?

[William Schlegel]

I found a somatic mutation in a tomato. One tomato was half and half and the other solid kind of orange skin with red veins. A strain of Jagodka I got from a guy named Earl on the old Homegrown goodness forum in 2017. I saved the seed from the solid mutant tomato. Next step of course is to grow it out again and see if it persists. Sometimes with frameshift mutations they shift back and forth.

If stable this trait could be bred into more exciting varieties.

It occurs to me that somatic mutations are the origin stories for some tomato varieties.

Never found a mutant before.

[Garrett Schantz]

I would breed it with an OSSI source tomato, if the trait becomes stabilized, it would be different from your original strain - could probably pledge it as a new form of Earls.

Hopefully the mutation persists.

I haven't found any positive mutations in Solanum species yet, found a tomato seedling before with three cotlydeons - the plant grew awkwardly and slow. Never flowered.

Found a Yellow / Red Sambucus racemosa earlier this year, mutantations are fun.

https://www.uspto.gov/patents/basics/types-patent-applications/general-information-about-35-usc-161

Seems like plant mutations that were found in a cultivated area can be patented. Hopefully the trait / new variety can be pledged.

[Adrian]

It frequent for me to found tomato plant with three cotyledons and it arrivedvm mainly on the varietys with big fruits.The two firsts internodes after the fotyledons are three leafs.
Unfortunately i have never stabilisated this characteristics.

[Steph S]

That mutant is a real beauty, William!   Hope it is stable.
I would think you could pledge a mutant line of tomatoes, and it would be no different than anything you create by breeding.  The only difference is that the trait doesn't exist in 'public domain', so all of the mutant varieties to come would be OSSI.

[William Schlegel]

My thought is if it is stable to cross it with something pretty like my MMS line and see what it does with the anthocyanin. It will surely be my 2022 Jagodka grow out.

[Johann Kuntz]

https://www.uspto.gov/patents/basics/types-patent-applications/general-information-about-35-usc-161

Seems like plant mutations that were found in a cultivated area can be patented. Hopefully the trait / new variety can be pledged.

Yes, mutations definitely get patented.  I read a lot of plant patents and regularly encounter varieties which were just one mutation removed from a public domain/non-patented variety.  There are actually a lot of patents in general that have been granted for plants which were found by luck with no intentional breeding effort at all.  Amazing...

That said, if they can be patented, then they definitely can alternatively be pledged as open source.  However, it may be difficult to prove someone illegally patented a variety descended from your mutant cause they could easily claim they were working with the original and encountered the same mutation independently...

Off the top of my head I can think of two mutated Hosta cultivars which are visually indistinguishable and both derived from the same original non-patented parent plant.  However, one remained public domain and the other got patented.  Did the mutation actually occur the same way twice on two different occasions?  Did someone simply lie and patent an already existing mutation?  Did someone lie and say the mutation re-occurred after the patent to create an indistinguishable plant that is un-patented?  Messy.

[William Schlegel]

Dakota Sport is a sport therefore a somatic mutation of Crimson Sprinter. It has been done.