b'PARTNER CONTENTA Global Breeding Race is on. Genomic Data is Key to WinningNRGene is making a big impact on the international breeding community with its expansion into Canada and beyond.C anadas Dr. Curtis Pozniak faced one of the biggest chal-lenges of his career in 2015 when he worked on the first wheat genome assembly as part of the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC). At the time, the tech-nology at hand left a lot to be desired. We were using a very different approach where individual countries within the consortium would sequence an individual chromosome and then, collectively complete the whole se-quence, says Dr. Pozniak, the director of the Crop Development Centre at the University of Saskatchewan, which released over 500 commercials crop varieties in Canada over the last 50 years. It was painstakingand painfully slowwork. Around that time, we started to hear rumblings within the international community of this Israeli company called NRGene, and how theyd been working to assemble genomes of variousThe staff of NRGene Canada is led by founder & CEO Gil Ronen species to a very high quality and very quickly in around a three- (sixth from left).PHOTO: DAVID STOBBEto-six-week period. It gave Pozniak hope that the team might accomplish its goalInternational Canola Pan-genome Consortium, meant to advance much faster than anticipated.the rapeseed industry by capturing the crops broad genetic diver-Variety development across the world then took a major leapsity. Nuseed contributed its own canola lines to the research and forward in early 2016 when, at the annual Plant and Animal Ge- received the full pangenome comparison results. nome Conference, the team pulled back the curtain to reveal theAs Nuseed started to grow its breeding program in North highly complex genome for bread wheat.America, we needed this kind of technology to develop molecular With NRGenes help, we were able to get to the finish line a lotmarkers to help speed up our targeted selection. That said, I look faster than we would have otherwise, Pozniak says.at this partnership in a much longer-term way, says Katy Navabi, Its a story thats becoming more familiar to the ears ofNuseeds North America canola breeding leader based in Canada. NRGene founder and CEO Gil Ronen, whose company has ex- As we introduce more elite germplasm to our breeding, we panded into the United States and recently opened a new officehave to be very familiar with that germplasm at the sequence and genotyping lab in Canada, in the agriculture research clusterlevel. in Saskatchewan.Turning technological capability into business success forThe move is further evidence of how the Israel-based NRGeneboth the breeder and NRGene itself is a study in knowing the mar-impacts the international breeding community.ket and which crops are going to be at the center of the innovation Weve really disrupted the global industry, ever since wespace in the years ahead, says NRGenes Chief Strategy Officer helped map the wheat genome back in 2015, Ronen says.Rick Calk. The fact that we can bring fast, high-quality results that areWhether its drones in the air, advanced irrigation or genom-also cost effective really has been a game-changer.ics, Calk says those in the ag spaceespecially farmershave adopted new technologies faster than predicted. To keep up to the Knowing the Market change, breeders need fast, convenient access to genomic tech-Numerous top seed and plant breeding companies in the world arenologies that will help them deliver new varieties faster than ever now using NRGenes solutions to find the differences between ge- before. nomes and allocate beneficial genes or other genomics challenges.Anyone whos in business understands the best way to set up Nuseedwhich has developed traits for customers acrossa new operation is to have your customers bring you there. The Australia, Europe, and North and South Americafirst col- flipside of that is, of course, being located where you have the laborated with NRGene in 2019 when Nuseed became part of thegreatest opportunity to live out your mission, Calk says.DECEMBER 2021SEEDWORLD.COM /91'