Canada-China Joint Agriculture and Food Proposal

Partner: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)

Brassica crops are an integral part of the Canadian and Chinese agricultural economy and both countries contribute substantially to the position of canola/rapeseed oil as the third largest source globally for vegetable oil. The objectives of the project include: (i) Generate novel sources of diversity for Brassica crops; (ii) Understand differential interactions of selected clubroot resistance (CR) genes and gene combinations against different pathotypes of P. brassicae from Canada and China; (iii) Characterize the molecular/biochemical mechanisms of CR genes/combinations against different pathotypes of P. brassicae based on transcriptome, proteome and metabolome profiling; (iv) Assess durability of selected CR genes or gene combinations under a simulated intensive canola cropping conditions; (v) Identify, clone and characterize novel CR genes; (vi) Marker based detection and differentiation of P. brassicae within Chinese and Canadian canola field population; (vii) Race and species profiling of Chinese and Canadian Leptosphaeria (blackleg) field population.