source: Farm and Food Report
Every creature has its nemesis. Flea beetles simply hate hairy surfaces, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researcher Dr. Margaret Gruber.
“They don’t like hair to get in their way,” Dr. Gruber says. “It seems they can’t touch the surface of canola seedlings properly when that happens — nor can they feed on them. We have been studying some of the genes that influence hair development in plants in order to create canola varieties with hair on seedlings, which would constitute a natural defence against predatory flea beetles.”
These hairs are called trichomes. With the financial assistance of canola grower organizations in the three Prairie Provinces and the Western Grains Research Foundation, scientists at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada facility in Saskatoon will work over the next three years on developing hairy canola germplasm that also has the potential to provide drought resistance to seedlings.
“AAFC researchers in Winnipeg and Saskatoon have figured out from previous observations that flea beetles don’t do well with hairy leaves on other plants. Here in Saskatoon, we have succeeded in generating canola with extremely hairy young leaves. We must now develop trichomes on the cotyledon of the canola seedling in order for the natural resistance to be truly effective in fending off flea beetles.”
Dr. Gruber expects that flea beetle resistant canola will translate into substantial savings for producers, who will no longer have to rely on the use of pesticides to protect their crops against this particular invader. Plant breeders and entomologists have struggled for years to develop canola germplasm that deters flea beetles.
Approximately $150 million in damages occurs annually to Canadian canola crops because of these pests, despite $40 million being spent annually on pesticides.
“The plants that we have developed so far are much smaller than normal canola varieties. In this type of work, we are simply remaking the plants with higher densities of hair. Canola plants already have hair — we are just trying to stimulate higher density through experimentation. Now that we have succeeded in doing this in young leaves, we will focus on recovering the normal size of the plants and stimulating hair growth on the cotyledon itself.”
Dr. Gruber admits being very excited about this work, as she and her colleagues study a number of traits in the plant to understand the relationship between flea beetles and canola.
“There are flea beetle resistant species of weeds, like stinkweed and false flax, that are related to canola and are of immense interest for us. We examine the compounds that these plants produce, and we try to gain insight into compounds that make plants resistant to flea beetles and compounds that make canola susceptible to these pests. Once we accomplish that, we look to see if a resistance type of bio-chemical pathway is present, but not currently functional, in canola. We also study the function of genes which are expressed differently when canola is damaged by beetles.”
Dr. Gruber explains how plants make chemicals for defense much in the same way humans produce antibodies. In the case of plants, some chemicals will make the plant more resistant to insects. Sometimes, chemicals in the plant will actually be converted into a substance that is useful to the insect’s metabolism.
“We focus on understanding and developing traits that are associated with insect resistance. We will be conducting some tests this year that, hopefully, will let us determine just how resistant the hairy leaves are. We anticipate they will fully protect the young leaves, which is a part of the seedling that even pesticides do not seem to protect well. But we still have canola with smooth cotyledon to contend with at the moment. Our next few years of experiments should bring us closer to growing canola endowed with a hairy cotyledon. This is the type of plant breeding adventure my colleagues and I thrive on.”
For more information, contact:
Dr. Margaret Gruber
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Saskatoon Research Centre
(306) 956-7263
Every creature has its nemesis. Flea beetles simply hate hairy surfaces, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researcher Dr. Margaret Gruber.
“They don’t like hair to get in their way,” Dr. Gruber says. “It seems they can’t touch the surface of canola seedlings properly when that happens — nor can they feed on them. We have been studying some of the genes that influence hair development in plants in order to create canola varieties with hair on seedlings, which would constitute a natural defence against predatory flea beetles.”
These hairs are called trichomes. With the financial assistance of canola grower organizations in the three Prairie Provinces and the Western Grains Research Foundation, scientists at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada facility in Saskatoon will work over the next three years on developing hairy canola germplasm that also has the potential to provide drought resistance to seedlings.
“AAFC researchers in Winnipeg and Saskatoon have figured out from previous observations that flea beetles don’t do well with hairy leaves on other plants. Here in Saskatoon, we have succeeded in generating canola with extremely hairy young leaves. We must now develop trichomes on the cotyledon of the canola seedling in order for the natural resistance to be truly effective in fending off flea beetles.”
Dr. Gruber expects that flea beetle resistant canola will translate into substantial savings for producers, who will no longer have to rely on the use of pesticides to protect their crops against this particular invader. Plant breeders and entomologists have struggled for years to develop canola germplasm that deters flea beetles.
Approximately $150 million in damages occurs annually to Canadian canola crops because of these pests, despite $40 million being spent annually on pesticides.
“The plants that we have developed so far are much smaller than normal canola varieties. In this type of work, we are simply remaking the plants with higher densities of hair. Canola plants already have hair — we are just trying to stimulate higher density through experimentation. Now that we have succeeded in doing this in young leaves, we will focus on recovering the normal size of the plants and stimulating hair growth on the cotyledon itself.”
Dr. Gruber admits being very excited about this work, as she and her colleagues study a number of traits in the plant to understand the relationship between flea beetles and canola.
“There are flea beetle resistant species of weeds, like stinkweed and false flax, that are related to canola and are of immense interest for us. We examine the compounds that these plants produce, and we try to gain insight into compounds that make plants resistant to flea beetles and compounds that make canola susceptible to these pests. Once we accomplish that, we look to see if a resistance type of bio-chemical pathway is present, but not currently functional, in canola. We also study the function of genes which are expressed differently when canola is damaged by beetles.”
Dr. Gruber explains how plants make chemicals for defense much in the same way humans produce antibodies. In the case of plants, some chemicals will make the plant more resistant to insects. Sometimes, chemicals in the plant will actually be converted into a substance that is useful to the insect’s metabolism.
“We focus on understanding and developing traits that are associated with insect resistance. We will be conducting some tests this year that, hopefully, will let us determine just how resistant the hairy leaves are. We anticipate they will fully protect the young leaves, which is a part of the seedling that even pesticides do not seem to protect well. But we still have canola with smooth cotyledon to contend with at the moment. Our next few years of experiments should bring us closer to growing canola endowed with a hairy cotyledon. This is the type of plant breeding adventure my colleagues and I thrive on.”
For more information, contact:
Dr. Margaret Gruber
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Saskatoon Research Centre
(306) 956-7263
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