Plant Biotechnology Facility

The Plant Biotechnology Facility (PBF) supports biotechnology research on a wide range of crop species relevant to Canada. This research involves physiological and developmental pathways for assessing crop performance via beneficial trait characterization, including seed and grain composition, plant lipids and waxes, plant standability, plant disease, root system architecture, microbiomes, photosynthetic efficiency and floral architecture. Protein and enzyme production and engineering, including gene editing, is used to understand the roles of proteins and their interactions in mediating the abiotic and biotic responses of plants to their environments and in the development of bioprocessing technologies for the effective transformation and utilization of plant biomass. Doubled haploidy and transformation technologies for a wide range of species are available. The facility supports research in cell technologies and plant regeneration, resistance and protection to plant disease, sustainability under abiotic stresses, genomic technologies accelerating plant breeding, developmental and physiological pathway analyses of seeds and photosynthesis, biotic interactions, plant protein and metabolic engineering, enzyme production using solid-state fermentation, and food processing technology development.