SASKATOON — Genomics company NRGene, based in Saskatoon, has discovered new genes with durable resistance to clubroot.
NRGene Canada, which opened its new genotyping lab in Saskatoon last year, has identified what it believes will provide “durable” resistance to clubroot, a soil-borne disease of canola.
“The farmers are frustrated because there are not so many options available… which (have) the durable resistance (to clubroot),” said Masood Rizvi, general manager of NRGene Canada. “We’ve been working on this for two years and a half, and now we are at the point where we are cracking the code for clubroot resistance in canola.”
If all goes according to plan, NRGene hopes to have the genes integrated into commercial canola hybrids in a few years.
“Probably 2025, that’s our realistic timeline… when the seeds can go into the farmer’s field,” Rizvi said Feb. 9.
Clubroot was first detected in Alberta 20 years ago and has since spread to other regions in Western Canada.
The pathogen can survive in the soil for years. It reduces canola yield to nothing in parts of fields where there are severe infections.
Clubroot can also defy the genetic resistance that exists in canola hybrids.
University of Alberta research has identified 36 clubroot pathotypes of clubroot.
Of those, 19 can “overcome the “first-generation” resistance to clubroot found in most canola varieties grown in Canada,” said a U of A news release.
First generation resistance to clubroot is sometimes called Mendel resistance because the gene came from a winter oilseed named Mendel.
NRGene, as noted on its website, uses artificial intelligence-based genomic tools to speed up breeding programs.
In this case, NRGene looked at a diverse set of canola lines to find genetic sources of resistance to clubroot.
“Taking some of the proprietary information in our database and then testing the pathotypes (of clubroot), we found a couple of lines that could be a potential donor for those resistant genes,” Rizvi said.
“We tested them and bred them into spring canola because they were coming from different canola types, either winter or rapa.”
They identified a canola line with two resistance genes and another line with three.
“Then we stacked those genes into one (variety). We want to make sure there is one variety that is durable,” Rizvi said.
For next steps, NRGene needs to transfer the stacked-resistance genes into a commercial canola hybrid and grow the variety in plots.
“Once we finish the integration, these lines will potentially go into the field and multiple locations… and test… for clubroot resistance and also the yield and oil (content),” Rizvi said.
NRGene has filed for a provisional patent on this clubroot resistant technology.
Stephen Strelkov, a University of Alberta plant pathologist who studies clubroot and clubroot management, said other companies are using the stacking approach to improve canola’s resistance to clubroot.
“If you have only one resistance gene in your variety and that (gene) is no longer effective, then that variety becomes susceptible to the disease,” he said.
“But if you stack (a) number of genes, then it is more durable.”
Many of the canola hybrids on the market have first generation resistance to clubroot and aren’t effective against the newer types of clubroot.
However, hybrids are now available with enhanced resistance.
“An increasing number of products have this second generation resistance,” he said.
“Some of those do control some of the (new) pathotypes quite well.”
Strelkov said the NRGene discovery may help in the battle against clubroot, but it won’t fix the clubroot problem.
Over time, new pathotypes of clubroot will appear.
“You can’t really say, OK, we have introduced new resistance (genes) and we can stop worrying about it.… It’s not a magic bullet, for sure.”
