Plant biology researchers in the Faculty of Science at the University of Calgary have discovered a key canola protein and the vital role it plays in successful pollination.
Plant biology researchers in the Faculty of Science at the University of Calgary have discovered a key canola protein and the vital role it plays in successful pollination.
The discovery of the protein — phospholipase D1 (PLD1) — could be used by biotechnology companies to create new, more vigorous hybrid varieties of canola, and to promote and accelerate pollination even in challenging environmental conditions, the researchers say.
In a new study, Drs. Marcus Samuel and Sabine Scandola identified the protein and showed that it is necessary both for pollination, and for the biochemical process through which canola plants reject self-pollination and self-fertilization (called the “self-incompatibility response”) to prevent inbreeding.
“We have identified a new, major target in the self-incompatibility pathway, which could be applied in the canola industry in making hybrid plants,” says Samuel, associate professor of integrative cell biology in the Department of Biological Sciences.
Continue reading at University of Calgary.
Image via University of Calgary.
