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/grain composition, plant lipids/waxes, plant standability, plant disease, root system architecture, microbiomes, photosynthetic efficiency and floral architecture. Protein/enzyme production and engineering, including gene editing, is used to understand the roles of proteins and their interactions in mediating the abiotic/ biotic responses of plants to their environments and in the development of bioprocessing technologies for the effective transformation/utilization of plant biomass. Doubled haploidy and transformation technologies for a wide range of species are available. The facility supports research in cell technologies/plant regeneration, resistance/protection to plant disease, sustainability under abiotic stresses, genomic technologies accelerating plant breeding, developmental/physiological pathway analyses of seeds/photosynthesis, biotic interactions, plant protein/metabolic engineering, enzyme production using solid-state fermentation, and food processing technology development.