University of Saskatchewan (USask) researchers have designed a chain of software programs that combine biology and computer science to help identify the pathogen proteins that contribute to the insurgence of clubroot disease now affecting canola across the Prairies.
This research may lead to developing plant varieties more resistant to this devastating parasite, which causes root galls or knots that prevent plants from taking up nutrients from the soil. Clubroot can result in up to 50-per-cent yield loss and billion-dollar losses worldwide.
The disease had initially only affected cabbage, broccoli and turnips, but since the early 2000s, it was also identified in canola fields in Alberta and Manitoba. Since 2017, clubroot has been found in more than 35 Saskatchewan fields.
“Current management strategies such as crop rotation and liming, which makes the soil inhospitable for the parasite, produce limited results and treat only the symptoms,” said USask biology post-doctoral fellow Dr. Edel Pérez-López (PhD).
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Image via University of Saskatchewan.