Objective
The objective is to expand Plant Genetic Resources of Canada’s (PGRC) collection of flax germplasm by requesting material of interest to Canadian breeders from Russian institutes, to characterize and evaluate it using morphologic, agronomic, and quality characters, to place the information into the PGRC-database so that seed and information will be available for use, and to strengthen cooperation and exchange between Russian and Canadian scientific personnel.
Project Description
The collection of flax germplasm at Plant Gene Resources of Canada (PGRC) had gaps in the collection regarding traits of use in flax breeding programs and regarding geographic areas not being represented in the collection. Collaboration and germplasm exchange with the All-Russian Flax Research Institute (VNIIL) at Torzhok and the All-Russian Institute of Crop Industry (VIR) at St. Petersburg were arranged. PGRC received 97 accessions of flax germplasm from the VIR and 104 from the VNIIL. These accessions were grown for seed increase and agrobotanic characterization in the field at Saskatoon during 1999. Characterization data was collected and seed entered the seed storage facilities of PGRC. A visit by Dr. Tatiana Roazhmina from the VNIIL in July was arranged and several contacts with flax breeders and the flax industry could be established.
