Federal support for genomics will pay researchers to explore new avenues to create more vigorous and tolerant crop varieties for western Canadian farmers.
Genome Prairie will receive $800,000 over the next four years from the Western Diversification Fund to support, develop and implement its focus on agriculture and health.
Reno Pontarollo, chief scientific officer for Genome Prairie, said genomics refers to the code that determines the general information of an organism. It allows scientists to look at genes and proteins and learn more about how a plant functions.
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“In agriculture, we can increase crop yield while we decrease environmental impacts on the land,” Pontarollo said of the benefits of genomics research.
Wilf Keller, research director at the National Research Council in Saskatoon, cited the $240 million fund announced in the last two federal budgets for Genome Canada to support six genomics and proteomics networks.
That money will be used in part to further research into the nutritional and health benefits of crops.
For canola, that means opportunities to develop healthier oils and move away from hydrogenated fats.
Canola oil’s use in biofuel is also being explored.
Research will lead to more vigorous plants that can better withstand heat and cold and produce more seeds and oil on each unit of land.
“Genomics will provide another whole level of new traits that we haven’t been able to achieve,” Keller said. “This approach may give us some new opportunities to develop that.”
He said plant breeders can then take these results and produce new varieties for farmers to plant in the coming decades.
Keller cited similar opportunities for other prairie crops like flax and pulses.
“Western Canada could benefit in the long term significantly,” he said.
Genome Prairie’s network involves industry, provincial governments, universities and federal laboratories and agencies. The network will allow members to collaborate and communicate on analyses, reviews and business development.
The goal will be to identify market-driven research priorities for genomics, develop funding strategies for research and establish industrial links leading to commercial products.
