NRC and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) have released the single largest number ever of DNA sequences for Brassica napus (Canola) and related species. These sequences have been added to the global repository for DNA sequence information – GenBank (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/).
Not only does this mark a significant contribution to the international science community, it also positions Canada as a centre of excellence in the areas of environment, natural resources and health – priorities identified in Canada's new Science and Technology Strategy. With this contribution, the world is one step closer to creating an improved generation of versatile Brassica crops with endless health, environmental and industrial benefits.
"Canola is Canada's plant," claims Dr. Coulombe, NRC President. "The long-standing partnership between AAFC and NRC has been vital to the development of Canola. It is an important part of our economy and it will be even more valuable in the future. Maintaining a scientific leadership position with this plant is critical to providing our industry with the knowledge base necessary to improve yields and diversify the applications towards which Canola can be applied."
As a major contributor to Canada's agri-food industry, Canola, an oilseed Brassica, accounts for an annual economic value of approximately $11 billion. The benefits of Canola are far reaching; not only does it currently supply a high quality and healthy vegetable oil used for cooking, salad dressing and margarine, it has also gained prominence as a potential source for manufacturing a wide variety environmentally-friendly products such as bioplastics and biodiesel. In a world concerned with renewable fuels, Canola and its derivatives present an interesting opportunity to address the pressing issues of climate change. This vital crop is particularly well-positioned to serve as a feedstock to fulfill the targets of Canada's pending Clean Air Act that will require two percent biodiesel blends in diesel and heating oil by 2012.
As part of a long-standing cooperative research effort between the AAFC Saskatoon Research Centre (AAFC-SRC) and the NRC Plant Biotechnology Institute, Canadian researchers have been working with Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) to understand how specific genes within Canola react to their environment and create compounds important in biofuels and healthy oils for foods. Rather than using traditional time-consuming methods to isolate genes, ESTs provide researchers with a quick and accurate view of fragments of a DNA sequence – the "functional" parts of a genome where gene expression takes place. By using ESTs to study how genes are expressed within Canola, it is then possible to determine ways to manipulate these genes in order to improve crop yields and produce stronger and more-resistant seeds for food and industrial applications.
"This research focuses not only on an area of strategic importance to Canada but raises our profile in the International community," said AAFC research scientist Dr. Isobel Parkin (current Chair of the Multinational Brassica Genome Project). "This latest accomplishment reinforces Canada's position as a leader in agriculture science and provides an enabling tool which will contribute to the development of a more prosperous and sustainable agriculture sector that will benefit farmers, industry, and all Canadians."
In conjunction with two Genome Canada projects, Enhancing Canola through Genomics (managed by Genome Prairie) and Designing Oilseeds for Tomorrow's Markets (managed by Genome Alberta), NRC and AAFC have been using ESTs to examine how gene expression is involved in Canola seed development.
With 437,000 Brassica ESTs generated at NRC-PBI and 160,000 generated at AAFC-SRC, the submission of this joint collection marks the most significant DNA sequence contribution to the global Brassica research community representing nearly 90% of all submitted Brassica ESTs. The contribution of the EST collection is especially timely since it will be a valuable tool in annotating the Brassica rapa genome, which is being sequenced as part of an International community effort.
In order to respond to emerging global challenges and enhance the value and production of crops such as Canola, it is essential to develop methods to improve seed quality and yield through the application of the latest genomics technologies. By sharing these technologies, the global research community will be able to work together to harness the full potential of this vital crop.
"Genome Canada is enthusiastic about the results of this genomics research, which will bring improvements not only to Canada's food and agriculture industry but to every citizen as an end result through health and economic advancements," said Dr. Martin Godbout, President and CEO, Genome Canada.
