b'The experimental transgenic canola (2 on right) has increased stem count, seed pods, stem thickness and up to 50% greater yield than the control plants (2 on left).PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF GUELPHAgriculturalFUTURE CANOLA COULDsee big yield gains thanks to innovative work at the University of Guelph (U of G). Initially, Michael Emes and Ian Tetlow, biochemists and profes-Game-Changer sors at the U of G Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, transferred a starch-branching corn enzyme into model plant Arabidopsis to see if the plant could form starch in its leaves.We did that primarily to test some hypotheses we had about on the Horizon the way starch is made, Emes says. Starch in and of itself is an important product.They replaced gene codes for enzymes that determine the degree of branching and chain length of the starches. for Canola When those plants grew, the scientists observed surprising results compared to the unaltered parents. Emes explains the plants were twice the size, produced four times the siliques (seed pods) and had an overall yield increase of approximately 250%. The modified plants exhibited a remarkable increase in both Promising research showing yieldflower production and seed count. While a standard Arabidopsis increase of a whopping 250% inplant usually yields around 11,000 seeds, those that were geneti-cally engineered to contain the corn enzyme significantly sur-experimental plants.Kristi Cox passed this figure, producing more than 50,000 seeds.Importantly, the oil profile did not change through this pro-cess.Arabidopsis is not a crop, but a model plant that is geneti-cally very similar to canola. While the genes are virtually identical, canola is a more complex plant than Arabidopsis. The research-ers say replicating the study results in canola could greatly 10/ SEEDWORLD.COMJANUARY 2024'