EDMONTON – Canola researcher Habibur Rahman is hoping to extract the best traits from European winter rapeseed, Chinese kale and rutabaga to give Canadian canola a big boost.
The distant cousins of Canadian canola are already showing potential to increase genetic diversity, boost yields, increase clubroot resistance and improve oil content in canola plot trials at the University of Alberta.
“Long term, we want to broaden the genetic diversity of all of Canadian canola,” Rahman said during a field day at the research plots.
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Scattered across the university’s farm campus in south Edmonton are thousands of canola plants in small breeding plots that have been created by crossing canola with European winter rapeseed, Chinese kale and rutabaga.
Rutabaga offers clubroot resistance, Chinese kale provides increased resistance to some insects as well as greater genetic diversity, and European winter rapeseed is higher yielding and has higher oil content.
Farmers on the tour were amazed at the long pods and thick stands in a plot of canola that had been crossed with Chinese kale, a member of the brassica oleracea family, and then recrossed with Hi Q, a Canadian Argentine canola variety.
Doctorate student Rick Bennett spent two months in the laboratory manually crossing the plants to produce the seed for the plots.
“We wanted to see how the genetics of oleracea express themselves in Hi Q,” Bennett said.
The European winter canola in another plot is later maturing but offers a different genetic pool than what is found in spring canola varieties.
Rahman said greater genetic diversity is important to the longevity of Canadian canola.
After harvest, Rahman and his students will study the seeds’ chemical makeup, select promising traits and continue the search for improved canola genetics.
At another plot is white-flowered canola, a result of a cross with Chinese kale.
Rahman said he developed a variety of white-flowering canola while working as a canola researcher in Denmark that had increased resistance to some insect pests.
He is now mapping the traits of the white-flowered canola to find benefits for the traditional yellow-flowered crop.
Once Rahman has found a promising new line, the germ plasm will be offered to private companies. The university does not have the tools or finances to develop and promote new varieties.
Rahman was crossing rutabaga plants with canola for clubroot resistance at the university laboratory even before the disease became a problem in central Alberta.
When clubroot became a threat, Rahman was able to make germ plasm available to private companies to use in their clubroot resistant canola varieties, dramatically reducing the impact of the disease.
While Rahman does not specialize in breeding Polish canola varieties, part of his research is dedicated to breeding it.
If a promising new trait develops from this sideline, he said he will also provide that germ plasm to other researchers.
Ward Toma, general manager of the Alberta Canola Producers Commission, said while it may look like private companies are receiving the benefit of public research, all farmers will benefit from improved canola varieties.
“It has little return as commercial value to the university but it benefits growers in the end,” Toma said.
