b'FILTERING NOISEOUT THENext-generation breeding methods are helping to takecannabis/hemp to a new level. Marc ZienkiewiczA MANITOBA-BASEDcompany is helping take hemp and cannabis breeding to new heights.Haplotech has won NRGenes international QuickGENETICS contest, which was announced in January. Haplotech was selected after presenting a project that will adopt advanced genomic tools in their breed-ing program. It will generate unique genetic markers to identify desirable traits such as flowering time, yield components and pathogen field resistance, according to Haplotech founder and president Rale Gjuric.Breeding is largely a numbers game. It is a function of low probabilities of fixing many favourable alleles in a single individual. Molecular tools and genomic insights will enable us to provide a significant increase in the number of plants screened each year and enhance our AWB_Germination-Jan2020.pdf 1 2019-12-13 1:57:13 PM capability to identify elite varieties, Gjuric says.Rale Gjuric is founder of the Manitoba-based Haplotech. Quick plant screens will be especially important in rap-idly selecting out hundreds or thousands of the least promis-ing plants, saving us precious time and cultivation space.Hemp and the cannabis plant in general (hemp is simply cannabis with a THC level of 0.3% or below), have been making big headlines after the recent legalization of recreational cannabis in Canada and numerous U.S. states. Industrial hemp was legalized in Canada back in 1998, and the United States followed suit with its 2018 Farm Bill allowing for the cultivation of industrial hemp.Haplotech was founded in 2009 as an independent C provider of technical and consulting services in the area M of plant breeding. Industrial hemp is one of the companys specialties, but Gjuric emphasises that the work it is doing Y on hemp can have benefits for the entire cannabis industry CM in general.MY It is significant because it will lead to better under-CY standing of genetic factors underlying complex traits related to yield, he says. CMY Once researchers understand those genetic factors and K map them on the genome, DNA markers can be devel-oped.Those traits are influenced by genotype environment interactions. Theyre difficult to phenotype as there is a lot of noise caused by environmental factors.Gjuric says researchers are working to solve the prob-lems that were solved in other crops a long time ago.Crops like corn and canola solved these issues years ago because there was commercial interest and the tools were available. Hemp is getting there now, he says. 42GERMINATION.CAJULY 2020'