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.
Insect pests pose a significant risk to field crop production on an annual basis, with each crop potentially affected by multiple insect pest species each year. This project will conduct experiments and collect new data on important insect pests.
The Canola AgriScience Cluster is a five-year research program funded through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) and the canola industry.
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.
The current project aims to define a root system architecture RSA that contributes to improved NUE for canola and will allow the reduction of nitrogen inputs while maintaining productivity. With increasing temperatures predicted for the Prairies in coming years it is becomes imperative to generate climate resilient crops.
The differential lines will provide canola pathologists and breeders with an extremely valuable tool for assessing the effectiveness of resistance. They will be made available to the canola industry for variety development, which will ensure that Saskatchewan producers have a diverse range of clubroot resistant cultivars to select from.
Genetic resistance is considered as the most efficient method for control of blackleg. Previous research results indicate that both Canadian and Chinese B. napus varieties could carry novel genes for resistance to blackleg. Therefore, it is necessary to identify and map the unknown R genes in the canola varieties.
Seed of PAK93-based pre-breeding lines will be more attractive to plant breeding companies than the original germplasm such as PAK54, primarily because it will be faster to develop hybrid varieties that combine the desirable traits from PAK93-derived lines with other important traits such as herbicide tolerance and resistance to the diseases, blackleg and clubroot.
Increase canola protein inclusion rates in monogastric animal feeds, followed by canola germplasm that produces protein better suited for human diets, and finally specialty varieties that produce protein for specific technical applications.
The proposed research will deliver knowledge and tools to improve utilization of existing clubroot resistant cultivars and to accelerate the discovery of new clubroot resistance genes, with the anticipation of exploring broad-spectrum and durable clubroot resistance that will be highly beneficial to breeders and growers of canola and other Brassica crops.
