Improvement of Nitrogen Fixation trait in wheat and triticale

Dr. Alicja Ziemienowicz, AAFC Lethbridge 

Start Date: April 1, 2021
End Date: February 29, 2024

AWC’s funding: $53,125

Cereal crops are high-value staple crops for humans (cereal grain crops, including wheat) and feed for livestock (grain and forage crops, including triticale and wheat). Cereal crop growth is limited by nitrogen (N) availability in soil. In agriculture, nitrogen limitation is circumvented by the application of N fertilizers, which present significant costs of wheat and triticale production and contribute to environmental pollution. The proposed research into wheat and triticale that can fix atmospheric N2 for their own needs would increase cereal crop productivity in nitrogen-deficient soils and enhance the sustainability of system management practices in agriculture by reducing the amount of N fertilizer application, thus saving both money and the environment. The proposed project aims at the generation of triticale and wheat varieties with a stable trait of Biological Nitrogen Fixation (BNF), by genetic engineering of crop plant mitochondrial genomes with the nitrogen fixation genes (nif) originating from BNF bacteria. The proposed research would advance the BNF trait by stabilizing the trait in triticale and wheat engineered varieties and transferring the trait into the cultivars of high agronomic importance for Alberta’s, Prairies’ and Canadian agriculture. The key long-term outcomes from developing stable N2 fixing wheat and triticale would include improved competitiveness, profitability and sustainability of Alberta’s agriculture.