Grant: Engage Grants Program

Bayer CropScience provides crop protection solutions to Canadian farmers, and a core competency is providingCanadian canola producers with both pesticide treated canola seeds and subsequent crop management optionsto protect canola from pathogens during the growing season. Canola producers in the prairies are encounteringan emerging problem of late season root rot that is impacting an increasing number of cultivars. Thesignificance of the increased prevalence of a late season root rot is not to be understated and has resulted insignificant yield and economic losses to producers in recent years (CanolaWatch, 2014). While seed treatmentcan control the early season root rots that harm seedling emergence, late season root rot appears after theefficacy period of seed treatments, and therefore there is a need to develop new mitigation strategies forfarmers. There is a paucity of information on the specific microbial agents correlated to the pathology of thisnewly emerging late season root rot. Before rationale mitigation strategies can be developed and exploited byBayer CropScience a greater fundamental understanding of the microbial communities associated with this lateseason root rot must be acquired. Two specific questions will be addressed during this research project: i. Whatis the nature of the microbial communities that correlate with the late season root rot pathology and aresymptoms compounded by a poly-microbial infection?; ii. What is the effect of application of an experimentaltreatment compound to the microbial communities within the canola rhizosphere? By addressing these twofundamental questions the project will provide new insights into the causative agent(s) of the late season rootrot and insights into the underlying mechanism for the efficacy of the experimental treatment compound thatleads to a reduction in the severity of late season root rot.