Making of a more sustainable canola: using genetic diversity to improve nitrogen use efficiency

Project Summary

Purpose

This project will determine what makes a spring canola plant nitrogen-use efficient by characterizing the above-ground and root components of the plant, the correlation of shoot vs root components, the overall growth parameters and flowering patterns in response to nitrogen (N). In addition, this project will examine how to improve N-capture (NUpE) and repartitioning within the plant (NUtE). Through characterization of these phenotypes and by correlating these phenotypes with the genetic make-up of the lines, we will eventually provide the industry with methods to predict the N-response for new lines, without having to test individual lines and hybrids.

Progress

Successful field trials evaluating a historical series of rapeseed and canola cultivars under high and low nitrogen fertilization levels were conducted at Saskatoon and Melfort in 2019 and 2020. Thousands of data points and samples were collected from the trials. Due to COVID-19, greenhouse and laboratory components of this project have been delayed.