Research Results

Improving crop tolerance to drought is essential for maintaining yield stability under the continued threat of climate change and a key factor for achieving sustainability in agriculture by saving water resource usage. Molecular breeding focusing on monogenic transgenic intervention has so far achieved limited success in the development of drought tolerance in crops. This project focuses on a gene family that is the basis of quantitative trait loci (QTL) affecting drought tolerance in Brassicaceae.

Clubroot disease in canola and other brassicas is caused by the pathogen Plasmodiophora brassicae. Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan conducted a five-year study to identify and characterize effector proteins and their role in the establishment and progression of clubroot disease.

New sources of clubroot and blackleg resistance are needed in western Canada because virulent pathogen populations have been reported that are able to overcome the resistance of canola cultivars for both diseases.

Cultivar resistance is considered the most effective and practical approach for clubroot management. However, current resistant canola cultivars, available in Canada since 2009, were based on a single clubroot resistance (CR) gene.

Surveillance monitoring has shown that blackleg is again increasing in incidence and severity in western Canada, in part due to breakdown of a widely used major resistance gene. Sclerotinia stem rot is also a serious disease for canola growers, particularly in severe wet and cool growing seasons.

Researchers initiated a four-year project in 2014 to develop a set of differential lines of spring type Brassica napus with single genes for identification of races of Plasmodiophora brassicae and for durable resistance to clubroot.

Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan conducted a two-year project to further the discovery and subsequent genetic transformation for the introduction of apomixis technology into agriculture crops.

Clubroot, a serious threat to canola (Brassica napus) yields across Canada, is caused by the intracellular parasite Plasmodiophora brassicae.

Flea beetles are the most economically-damaging pest of canola. Researchers at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada initiated a project to develop canola lines with superior resistance to the crucifer flea beetle by enhancing a natural insect control system.

Modern canola varieties are derived from a relatively small subset of the genetic diversity found within available collections of Brassica napus germplasm. Intensive selection for specific quality traits has further narrowed the genetic diversity within elite breeding lines.

Clubroot, resulting from an infection by Plasmodiophora brassicae is a devastating disease of canola. Researchers initiated a five-year study in 2010 to investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms of P. brassicae infection, and to develop molecular markers and tools for utilizing pathogen protein targets for improved resistance to clubroot disease in canola.