Canola farming’s future brightened by genetic breakthrough

Dec 22, 2023

A revolution in canola farming is on the horizon, thanks to the University of Guelph’s groundbreaking research. Biochemists Michael Emes and Ian Tetlow have pioneered a method that could skyrocket canola yields by as much as 250%. This breakthrough began with transferring a starch-branching enzyme from corn into Arabidopsis, a model plant closely related to canola.

The results were astonishing. The genetically modified Arabidopsis plants were not only larger but also produced a significantly higher number of seeds — from 11,000 to an impressive 50,000 per plant. Encouraged by these outcomes, the researchers applied similar genetic modifications to canola.

Using CRISPR and traditional genetic modification techniques, they knocked out specific genes and inserted the maize genes. The modified canola plants exhibited a 50% yield increase, with more stems and thicker stems, which could imply better drought tolerance — a critical trait in the face of climate change.

Research associate Liping Wang played a key role in these experiments, highlighting the importance of drought resistance in the current climate scenario. The modified canola not only promises higher yields but also shows resilience under stressful conditions like heat and water scarcity.

The research team is now poised to take their findings from the lab to the field. Planned field trials in various Canadian provinces and possibly Montana will test these genetically engineered canola plants in real agricultural settings.

This research, a part of the Agriscience Research Cluster for Canola and funded by the Canadian government, stands at the forefront of agricultural innovation. While commercial availability may still be a decade away, the potential impact on canola farming and global food security is immense, marking a significant step towards more sustainable and resilient agricultural practices.

Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”