Discovery of a heat stress reduction gene may someday significantly reduce flower abortion in canola.
Malcolm Devine of Performance Plants announced the breakthrough Jan. 10 during Western Canadian Crop Production Week in Saskatoon.
Performance Plants is based in Kingston, Ont., but also has research facilities in Saskatoon.
“We screened thousands of plants looking for those that didn’t abort their flowers in heat stress in the greenhouse,” said Devine, who works in Saskatoon.
“We heat stressed canola plants containing the gene for three, five, seven, nine days and found we were able to prevent flower loss, especially after five and seven days, even after nine days of extremes in heat during flowering.”
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The experiment was completed in canola just before Christmas and the company is now multiplying seed so it can perform field tests next winter in a hot environment.
Devine also talked about ongoing work on a drought tolerance gene called era1, which causes a plant’s stomata to close faster and tighter.
The plant rapidly closes its leaf pores to keep its cells full of water because it senses drought faster and earlier due to its hypersensitivity to specific chemical signals from the roots.
Performance Plants discovered era1 while conducting a drought tolerance experiment with arabidopsis, a wild, rapid growing cousin of canola.
A greenhouse watering accident discovered the era1 gene function in a drought tolerant arabidopsis plant that had a genetic mutation.
“The original mutant was bomb resistant because it was too good at closing up shop. Because it didn’t take in carbon dioxide very well, it didn’t grow very well,” Devine said.
“We can, through a genetic breeding toolbox, dial in just the right amount of stomata closure. When drought comes they close quickly, but when watered they open rapidly and get back to growing.”
Under drought conditions Performance Plants has recorded a 15 percent improvement in moisture retention in canola in which the era1 gene has been inserted.
Oil composition and oil profiles of the seed remain constant, and there are no agronomic problems or yield reduction.
The genetic modification, which Performance calls Yield Protection Technology (YPT), is now being tested in corn in the United States. Devine said results have been positive.
Cotton and dryland rice growers, golf courses and public parks are all potential markets for the gene.
Ornamental breeders have used it in petunias.
“Reduced water use and increased production has large implications for society.”
Devine said Performance Plants is a small company with a workforce of 35 people and doesn’t have the resources to put commercialize its YPT on its own.
“We are working with canola companies to get (YPT) released. It will take time, but it should lead the wave of new agronomically valuable traits that will be released in four to five years.”
Performance Plants has given the gene to the African Harvest Biotech Foundation in Kenya to distribute to subsistence farmers in developing countries.
“These tend to be in areas where water is at a premium and drought devastates economies and cultures,” Devine said.
The power of a gene
A single gene can change the world.
Malcolm Devine, whose company has discovered genes that can make plants more tolerant of drought and heat stress, says there are examples in history of how one gene revolutionized agriculture.
It was a single gene that created the basis for the green revolution in India and Africa more than 30 years ago, producing shorter and more productive cereals and reducing malnutrition in the region.
“Wheats and rice we now know were modified forever by a breeder’s selection for a single gene, and it changed the world,” Devine said.
