The proposed research will characterize CR genes based on genome-wide association analyses between clubroot disease data and the whole genome sequence (WGS) data from UA clubroot resistance donors and 28 Brassica hosts available from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and Brassica database (BRAD) websites.
Engineering apomixis, the asexual reproduction through seeds without fertilization, will provide major advances to plant breeding. This is a technology which could quickly capture and maintain valuable genotypes and associated traits without inbreeding depression and help select for traits not available to current breeding strategies.
Clubroot disease significantly affects canola seed quality by reducing oil content and seed weight. The most effective solution to control this disease today is growing clubroot-resistant (CR) cultivars in appropriate rotations.
Droughts in 2001, 2008 and 2021 adversely affected crop production in Saskatchewan. Canola’s resilience to heat and drought depends on when these stresses occur within the crop lifecycle. Plants may recover after stress during the vegetative stage, but stress during flowering and/or pod development usually has a negative effect on yield.
The proposed research we propose builds on an approach that promises to significantly enhance current knowledge of the mechanisms by which the clubroot pathogen causes disease and provides a new functional genomics tool to the research community.
As with many crops, canola faces increasing challenges due to unpredictable environmental changes, notably last year drought conditions were prevalent, while in 2022 high heat stress during flowering and pod filling is likely to cause yield losses.
This proposal aims to identify core pathogenicity factors (effectors) of Lm and Fg and determine their function. This information could be used to develop biological and chemical fungicides that target the effector gene expression or block the function of effector gene products.
Non-race specific resistance against blackleg disease of Brassica napus canola, known as adult plant resistance (APR), is a quantitative trait controlled by multiple genes. The APR trait is highly durable against the blackleg pathogen Leptosphaeria maculans (Lm), although the nature of causative APR genes is not known.
The best approach to manage blackleg disease is the use of canola cultivars that are genetically resistant to the pathogen. However, cultivars that contain the resistant (R) gene(s) against the most prevalent pathogen race(s) are more likely to be effective in controlling blackleg disease. Among the various tools developed from this and other similar projects, markers for race determination of blackleg pathogen and markers that determine the type of R gene in canola cultivars have the most practical and immediate benefit for canola farmers by helping them to achieve both goals.
This project focused on increasing our knowledge on plant host-clubroot pathogen interactions by determining if reducing the ability of the pathogen to use the plant hormone auxin (responsible for cell grow, division and expansion in the plant) would reduce clubroot disease progression, particularly at the gall forming stage.
The output of the project will be a better understanding of the role of lipid composition in low temperature performance in B. napus seedlings. The objective is to identify new targets for breeding canola with improved low temperature characteristics.
The proposed research will demonstrate the effectiveness of specific genes in canola for resistance to sclerotinia. Plant breeders will be able to select QTLs to increase the likelihood of capturing these resistance genes in breeding lines.
