Identification and exploitation of genome structural variants for trait improvement in Prairie crops
Term: 4 years, beginning in 2021
Status: Ongoing
Researcher: Andrew Sharpe (GIFS/University of Saskatchewan)
SaskCanola Investment: $172,500
Total Project Cost: $690,000
Funding Partners: AWC, SWDC, WGRF
Objectives
Development of canola (Brassica napus) and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) pan-genome structural variant (PanSV) atlases.
Development of high-throughput structural variant (SV) genotyping pipeline.
High-throughput genotyping of SVs on canola and wheat populations.
Association of SVs with important agronomic traits.
Functional annotation of SV markers on the impact on phenotypes in wheat and canola.
This has the potential to open up plant breeding to a whole new way to identify germplasm variation in breeding programs. New canola genome reference sequences and bioinformatic tools will be available to the research community.