Building bridges to success - Accessing Brassica diploid variation for canola improvement

Term: 3 years, beginning in 2021
Status: Ongoing
Researcher(s): Steve Robinson, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
SaskCanola Investment: $55,000
Total Project Cost: $165,000
Funding Partners: ACPC, MCGA

Project Description

Efficient access to alleles in crop relatives is often challenging in polyploidy crop species where the major reserve of valuable alleles often exists in diploid relatives, where reproductive incompatibility is a major impediment. This project will exploit recent scientific advancements in order to develop specific germplasm accessible through the creation of bridging lines. These will enable access to valuable alleles ultimately delivering a new technology that will be available to canola breeders for performing inter-specific crosses within Brassica species.

Objectives

The major goals of this project are the development of new diploid bridging germplasm that is generated by successive backcrossing and marker-assisted selection, followed by the generation of new fertile synthetic B. napus using these diploids as parents. Additional experiments will be conducted to reduce the strength of the genetic block that significantly impedes interspecific crossing efficiency for more direct access to diploid genetic diversity.