Eliminating Preharvest Dehiscence in Canola Using Genoplasty Technology

Preharvest dehiscence of Canola seed pods (shatter) is a process of agronomic importance that causes significant yield loss as well as carry over of a crop into the subsequent growing season. In Canola, pod shatter causes an annual yield loss of 20% and may result in losses of 50% under adverse weather conditions (MacLeod, 1981; Child and Evans, 1989). In real terms, shatter results in a yield loss of $20-$25 per acre ($39M annual yield loss in the US) and swathing costs add an additional $6 per acre ($8.7 M annual additional direct cost; Northern Canola Growers Association). Using a site specific mutagenesis technology, Genoplasty, the research herein proposed aims to eliminate these losses as well as the resulting `volunteer' seedlings that germinate from dropped seed contaminating the next growing season's crop. In addition to this project's significant commercial merit, the research herein proposed will lead to the first in vivo application of Genoplasty to (i) modify a gene encoding a transcription factor in a plant genome and (ii) use multiple rounds of Genoplasty to engineer a recessive trait involving multiple loci. To date, Genoplasty has only been used to engineer dominant or codominant traits.