U of G Canola Research Shows Possible 250 Per cent Yield Increase

Promising research shows a canola yield increase of a whopping 250 per cent in experimental plants. 

Future canola crops could see big yield gains thanks to innovative work at the University of Guelph (U of G).

Initially, Michael Emes and Ian Tetlow, biochemists and professors at the U of G Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, transferred a starch-branching corn enzyme into model plant Arabidopsis to see if the plant could form starch in its leaves.

“We did that primarily to test some hypotheses we had about the way starch is made,” Emes says. “Starch in and of itself is an important product.”

They replaced gene codes for enzymes that determine the degree of branching and chain length of the starches.

When those plants grew, the scientists observed surprising results compared to the unaltered parents. Emes explains the plants were twice the size, produced four times the siliques (seed pods) and had an overall yield increase of approximately 250 per cent. The modified plants exhibited a remarkable increase in both flower production and seed count. While a standard Arabidopsis plant usually yields around 11,000 seeds, those that were genetically engineered to contain the corn enzyme significantly surpassed this figure, producing more than 50,000 seeds.