En cours (2022‑2026)

The continuous rapid growth in global population and climate change is resulting in more conscientious decisions in consumers at the time of buying sustainably-produced food products, such as pulses. This scenario represents a unique opportunity for Quebec farmers. However, a major constraint that farmers face in adopting pulse crops in Quebec is the access to adapted, high- performing, disease-resistant varieties. The Pulse Breeding and Genetics (PBG) laboratory at McGill University has been established to release high-yielding pulse cultivars to farmers while generating new technologies in plant breeding. Depending on the plant characteristic, accurate and repeatable measurements can prove to be a challenging task. Technology improvements in environmental sensors have many applications for agriculture. In Quebec, white mold (Sclerotinia sclerotiorum Lib.de Bary) has been identified as a major production problem. Research pursuing develop genetic resistance is a priority to minimize pesticide use in the Quebec. The objectives of this proposal are:
1) Conduct breeding and development of elite bean lines for advanced yield trials; 2) Develop the basis in breeding for durable S. sclerotiorium (white mold, WM) resistance. 3. Construct regulatory networks to identify new and durable sources for white mold resistance. 4. Study the economic impact of expanding bean production in Quebec. Objective 1: The McGill University Field Phenomics platform will collect sensor data to characterize the populations and obtain a pan-phenomic data array of plant characteristics such as Canopy architecture reconstruction (morphometric imaging), Canopy color and temperature (RGB and thermal imaging), seed quality and plant biochemical characters (hyperspectral imaging). Objectives 2 and 3: Sclerotia will collected and geotagged across locations in eastern Canada, isolates will be determined, and genomes sequenced.  Aggressivity assays will be conducted as an initial screen. Pathogenicity assays in Phaseolus acutifolius x Phaseolus vulgaris (elite lines) from breeding program lines will be used to develop interspecific mapping populations to study introgression of durable white mold resistance genes into P. vulgaris. Infected leaf tissues during pathogenicity assays conducted at ambient and elevated CO2 will be sampled at intervals post inoculation and RNA will be extracted and sequenced to identify individuals exhibiting durable disease resistance. Objective 4: The economic analysis will estimate the profitability of bean production in various crop regions in Quebec.  This will include collecting cost of production and yield data from producers and processors. The macroeconomic indicators will be in terms of increases in industrial output, GDP, and employment in Quebec.

Région(s) administrative(s) de la tenue du projet

06 - Montréal