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CFCRA Oat Project; Activity 1: Breeding, genomics and agronomy research to improve oat yield and quality

Principal Investigators: Weikai Yan and Nick Tinker
Research Institution: Ottawa Research & Development Centre, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada
Project Start: April 2018
Project End: March 2023

Funding Partners: 
Funding for the Oat Project is provided by the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada AgriScience Program through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, with industry support from the Canadian Field Crop Research Alliance (CFCRA) whose members include: Atlantic Grains Council; Producteurs de grains du Quebec; Grain Farmers of Ontario; Manitoba Corn Growers Association; Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers; Saskatchewan Pulse Growers; Prairie Oat Growers Association; SeCan; and FP Genetics.  Additional industry funding beyond the core CFCRA members is provided by oat millers across Canada.

Objectives: 

  • Develop new oat cultivars with improved grain yield and quality
  • Identify optimal agronomic practices to achieve high and stable grain yield and quality
  • Enhance current oat breeding procedures in both the Ottawa and Brandon breeding programs with genomic selection
  • Screen advanced oat breeding lines for crown rust resistance
  • Enhance information and germplasm exchange among North American oat breeding programs through a joint testing and genotyping network referred as ENCORE
  • Develop a multi-faceted approach to data and knowledge management that enhances all objectives of this project and benefits world-wide pre-competitive oat research

Impacts:

  • The development of new oat cultivars with improved resistance to crown rust will provide oat growers in eastern Canada with high yielding and reliable oat cultivars that can be used as food, feed, or cover crop.
  • The development of new oat cultivars that meet the desired levels of beta-glucan content will provide consumers with healthier and more nutritious oat products from the oat milling industry.
  • The development of agronomic recommendations (i.e., nitrogen management and seeding rate) for oat production areas across Canada

Activity Summary:
This project will improve Canadian oat grain yield and quality through a comprehensive set of objectives that will: develop new oat cultivars, enhance genomic selection processes in breeding programs, develop crown rust resistance methods and develop new germplasm for oats. This activity will also explore agronomic practices to achieve high and stable grain yields and quality across the entire country.

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CFCRA Soybean Cluster; Activity 6: Breeding for Soybean Cyst Nematode (SCN) resistance using marker assisted selection

Principal Investigator: Louise O’Donoughue
Research Institution: CÉROM
Project Start: April 2018
Project End: March 2023

Funding Partners: 
Funding for the Soybean Cluster is provided by the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada AgriScience Program through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, with industry support from the Canadian Field Crop Research Alliance (CFCRA) whose members include: Atlantic Grains Council; Producteurs de grains du Quebec; Grain Farmers of Ontario; Manitoba Corn Growers Association; Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers; Saskatchewan Pulse Growers; Prairie Oat Growers Association; SeCan; and FP Genetics.

Objectives: 

  • Develop SCN-resistant adapted germplasm using resistant lines issued from crosses with validated sources of resistance and marker assisted selection.

Impact:

  • The identification of new sources of resistance that will be effective against the soybean cyst nematode (SCN) populations which are present in Ontario
  • The development of SCN-resistant soybean cultivars adapted to Canadian environments of maturity 00 to I
  • The continued competitiveness of soybean production in Canada despite the presence of this very serious pest

Activity Summary:
This activity proposes to develop SCN resistant germplasm in non-GM soybeans adapted to Canadian environments using marker-assisted selection. The germplasm will be adapted to Maturity Group 1-00 growing regions.   

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CFCRA Soybean Cluster; Activity 10: A new method for precise and reproducible phenotyping of Phythophthora sojae isolates in soybean

Principal Investigator: Richard Bélanger
Research Institution: Université Laval
Project Start: April 2018
Project End: March 2023

Funding Partners: 
Funding for the Soybean Cluster is provided by the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada AgriScience Program through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, with industry support from the Canadian Field Crop Research Alliance (CFCRA) whose members include: Atlantic Grains Council; Producteurs de grains du Quebec; Grain Farmers of Ontario; Manitoba Corn Growers Association; Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers; Saskatchewan Pulse Growers; Prairie Oat Growers Association; SeCan; and FP Genetics.

Objectives: 

  • Implementation of a new inoculation technique to assess cultivar response to P. sojae pathotypes based on zoospore infection in a miniature hydroponic system
  • Exploitation of molecular markers to validate the virulence patterns genes present in each P. sojae isolate tested
  • Expanded analyses of all P. sojae isolates currently present in our banks to all soybean-producing regions in Canada

Impact: 

  • The phenotyping based on zoospore approach has the distinct advantage to reproduce more closely the natural infection process and more importantly to allow the expression of root resistance and horizontal resistance not revealed by the standard hypocotyl inoculation technique.
  • Other advantages are the ease with which one can look at root response in the hydroponic system, the possibility to evaluate several cultivars at once within the same system which increases reproducibility, and the possibility to test several pathotypes simultaneously.
  • Another advantage is that any given pathotype will be consistently expressed following repeated subcultures.
  • This activity will provide precise directives for breeders to develop and exploit soybean germplasm resistant to P. sojae
  • This activity will provide long-term recommendations to soybean breeders and growers for deployment of Rps genes in commercial material.
  • This activity will result in reduced losses to P. sojae through use of soybean cultivars specifically resistant to pathotypes present in their growing areas


Activity Summary:
This activity proposes the first comprehensive phenotyping of Phytopthora sojae isolates present in Canadian soybean fields based on a novel reproducible bioassay and molecular tools.