The Rural Voice, 1985-09, Page 61FARM ADVICE
use for breeding. But by treating the
cells with the chemical, colchicine,
the number of genes can be doubled
and fertility restored. The new plants,
known as doubled haploids, can then
be used directly in the development of
new crop varieties.
At the Saskatoon Research Station,
doubled -haploid canola derived from
a French variety is now being tested
for quality, oil content, protein, and
resistance to blackleg, a common
canola disease.
Blackleg resistance will be tested
this summer by inoculating the doubl-
ed haploids with a disease -carrying
fungus. The surviving plants will then
be crossed with Canadian varieties to
introduce blackleg resistance.
"If the research is successful,
varieties of Canadian canola resistant
to blackleg could be available in two
or three years," says Ginette Seguin -
Swartz, a researcher with the Saska-
toon project.
At the Ottawa station, scientists are
working on a process called pro-
toplast fusion. They hope to use this
method to transfer drought tolerance
and disease resistance from yellow
mustard to canola.
A protoplast, sometimes called a
"naked cell," is really a cell without a
wall. "The cell wall can be removed
by treating the cells with enzymes,"
Dr. Keller says. When the protoplasts
are exposed, they can sometimes be
fused either by exposing them to a
chemical solution or electrical cur-
rents.
The goal then is to identify which
fusions are of the two different
species, which are of the same
species, and which are unfused cells.
Considerable research is now focus-
ing on finding markers to make the
identification of fusion hybrids
easier. ❑
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SEPTEMBER 1985 59