Objective
- Enhance flax yield potential by increasing additive genetic variance, increasing selection intensity, and reducing time interval.
- Develop screening protocol for tolerance to high temperatures.
- Identify interspecific flax genotypes with tolerance to a) heat stress and b) resistance to pasmo.
- Identify genetic components associated with a) heat tolerance and b) resistance to pasmo in interspecific population of flax.
- Development of breeding lines with improved yield potential and tolerance to high temperature and improved resistance to pasmo.
Project Description
The changes in climate patterns have imposed heat stress and impacted flax production in much of Western Canada growing regions in recent years by reducing yield and seed quality. Flax is susceptible to ‘heat blast’, whereby high temperatures cause flowers to abort. Between 2011 and 2020, the highest daily temperature for the month of July was 35.8℃. In July of 2021, the highest daily temperature was 40℃ and there were 14 days with temperatures over 30℃ and twice the next highest number of days over 30℃ since 2011. Breeding efforts to develop lines with improved tolerance to heat stress are urgently needed.
We propose to introduce the variability from Linum bienne to improve the yield and other agronomic traits in cultivated flax. Our previous research showed that the progeny from the interspecific crosses between cultivated flax (Linum usitatissimum) and its wild progenitor known as pale flax (Linum bienne) had more reproductive branches and produced higher biomass than the cultivated flax. Our observations also showed that L. bienne accessions have higher resistance to pasmo and better tolerance to abiotic stresses such as heat and drought.
