Grant: Alliance Grants

This one year $141,000 project is part of a collaboration between South Essex Fabrication's Centre for Horticultural Innovation and the Trant Team at the University of Windsor jointly supported by NSERC and MITACS. SEF is an established manufacturer of greenhouses, and through SEFCHI develops solutions for greenhouse growers. The greenhouse industry is a major economic player in South-Western Ontario; the Leamington area is home to the world's second largest conglomeration of greenhouses. One of the major plants grown are sweet peppers; however, this production is at significant existential risk. Fusarium-associated wilt in pepper crops has become exceedingly problematic over the past 2 years within Southwestern Ontario. Metagenomic sequencing work, conducted by SEFCHI revealed that they are Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium proliferatum, and Pythium aphanidermatum. However, the levels of the molds are unclear. It also appears that the spread of the impact is a lot more rapid than would be indicated by a simple infection model, so it is believed that fusarium toxins might be spreading through the water or other media in the greenhouses. The best way to determine levels of these materials is by liquid chromatography, and that is the goal of this project. This project supports two postdocs, a graduate student, and a research staff member to develop the methods to measure these toxins, a first-in-Canada approach, and to build a model so that we can predict the species present on the toxin profile alone. Developing these tools will allow Canadian greenhouse operators to rapidly detect and respond to fungal infections, protecting the Canadian food supply.