UBC – Controlled-environment facility (CEF) for cereal crop research

Project Description

Dr. Brar is starting his lab focused on the study of plant pathogens, host-pathogen interactions, and breeding for disease resistance at the University of British Columbia (UBC). The lab is the only one on the UBC campus that will carry out research on grain crops and applied aspects of plant pathology. The research from the lab will focus on answering some of the key questions in the area of plant pathology – i.e.: why plant pathogens are so successful in the environment and defeating plant defense mechanisms, why some plant genotypes/species can defend themselves better than others against pathogens, and how we can make use of natural immunity in certain genotypes/species to build durable resistance in our crop varieties. To answer these questions, we will develop methods/approaches to characterize crop pathogens and host resistance using modern technologies.

Research Results

The project was submitted for funding to WGRF’s ‘Capacity 2’ initiative launched in late 2019. Dr. Gurcharn Brar joined Plant Science program of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems (LFS) at UBC, Vancouver in January 2020 and applied for funding of $300,000 to establish a controlled-environment facility within LFS for his research program.

The facility has added capacity to cereal grains research program in the Plant Science program of the LFS at UBC. Prior to this, the controlled-environment facility options to Plant Science faculty were limited and such facility is integral to the research program of Dr. Gurcharn Brar. The long-term goal of the lab is to strengthen ongoing efforts to combat diseases of wheat and barley by identifying new sources of resistance and utilizing that resistance in improving and developing new wheat and barley cultivars. Plant diseases are greatly influenced by temperature and relative humidity, and to precisely study the host-pathogen interactions and work with pathogens, it is extremely important to have infrastructure that can provide environment-controlled conditions. Although the greenhouse can be used for growing plants, the growing conditions in the greenhouse are generally too variable for plant pathology or other sensitive plant science research. Precise control of temperature in a greenhouse is not possible as the variation is usually ± 2-3°C. Growth cabinets/chambers, on the other hand provide very precise and accurate control of not only temperature, but relative humidity, light intensity, and day/night length. Having a growth chamber facility dedicated to cereal crop research will facilitate the establishment of a strong program committed to solving/dealing with disease problems of western Canadian wheat and barley growers.