Biotech Updates

‘Bean-Gene' Project Launched in Canada

March 4, 2011

Dry bean is a very important industry in Canada generating more than $100 million annual income. Researchers in Canada however need to improve this crop to be able to resist bacterial pathogens and to contain more beneficial antioxidants and economically novel proteins.

The Ministry or Research and Innovation of Canada partnered with industry to support the project worth $11 million that would improve the dry beans. The team of nine researchers from three universities headed by Prof. Peter Pauls, chair of the Department of Plant Agriculture in Ontario Agricultural College aim to produce a draft genome sequence for dry beans and develop genetic markers for improved varieties resistant to diseases and with improved nutritional content.

"This represents an important opportunity for an Ontario genomics effort to have major international impact and will put Canadian bean researchers at the forefront," Pauls said during the recent  project launch at the University of Guelph.

See the original news release at http://www.uoguelph.ca/news/2011/02/_u_of_g_leads_b.html.