Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
February 26, 2022
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan is known as Canada’s agriculture biotech and canola epicenter attracting worldwide research and development talent and investment. It’s the hub for international collaboration and canola advancement. In approximately three years Nuseed has quietly built an efficient, highly collaborative R&D program that’s introducing new canola genetics into the North American market.
The Saskatoon-based Nuseed R&D team growth, under the direction and expertise of canola R&D industry leaders Van Ripley, and current Nuseed Canola R&D Lead Katy Navabi, has already required a move to a larger facility for the growing plant science and breeding expert team advancing molecular breeding capabilities and novel trait development.
In combination with industry collaborations, Nuseed is maximizing utilization of world-class genetics. The company has already earned the canola market leader position in Australia, and from that success the expert team in Saskatoon is accelerating North American canola breeding activities to include Canada driven population development applying genomic technologies to increase breeding efficiencies. Their work is already resulting in the introduction of new canola hybrids and new genetics into the North America canola market with clubroot resistance and very competitive performance versus top competitive hybrids.
Nuseed R&D teams in Saskatoon, and at the West Sacramento Nuseed Innovation Center in California are working closely together on genome-wide molecular marker development and specific trait markers for indirect selection of key disease, pest and agronomic traits, including herbicide traits and quality traits including proprietary complete omega-3 oil profiles for new aquafeed and human nutrition markets. In combination with industry collaboration Nuseed is quickly becoming a notable competitor in the North America canola market and further advancing the success of Nuseed Omega-3 Canola’s agronomic and oil traits.
Katy Navabi credits collaboration as key to how far and fast the Nuseed R&D program has already advanced in an interview with SeedWorld at the facility opening of NRGene, a genomics AI company and important collaborative R&D relationship to the program’s success.
“As we grow our R&D program we introduce new and exciting Nuseed germplasm that NRGene is helping us know better at a sequence level,” explains Navabi. “The collaboration develops markers for our targeted traits to speed up our targeted selection. NRGene can provide solutions to us to know our germplasm better at a sequence level.”
Through industry collaboration and the expertise of the growing teams in Saskatoon, West Sacramento, and Australia Nuseed is advancing canola input traits with agronomic benefits and output traits with benefits for consumers.
Learn more about our Canola business in Canada here.
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