b"Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) researchers tobecause Canadians love hot peppers but develop and introduce the first Libertyits so hard to grow them in the West. If resistant variety, Innovator, in 1995. he succeeds it could lead to a whole new Thats my top memory of work- industry, Rotariu adds.ing in this industry. Herbicide tolerant canola really was a game changer for theBest is Yet to Comeindustry. It really allowed for the expan- Despite the strides made in canola sion of the industry and also changed thebreeding, Ripley says the best is yet to way agriculture is being done in Westerncome as the crop evolves.Canada, Ripley says.We are very much at the early stages In 2001 he would move on to thewith canola in terms of its potential. AAFC Saskatoon Research Centre, work- When you look at it, hybrids really have ing to develop hybrid Brassica junceanot been in the marketplace for that long. canola germplasm for the CanadianAs we continue breeding hybrids and market and initiating a program toNuseed's Roger Rotariu has worked with Vanbetter understand the drivers of hetero-develop high oil/high glucosinolate B.Ripley for several years. sis, a big priority is going to be a signifi-juncea for the biodiesel market. cant ongoing increase in yield, he says. We were successful in getting thethrough plant protection certificates andThe other thing I think thats going Ogura pollination control system into oursometimes patents, but not so muchto have a major impact is the applica-germplasm, which was a big deal, he says.scientific journal articles. If you looktion of modern tools of plant breeding,Ogura cytoplasmic male sterilityat Vans CV, youll see quite the exten- like gene editing. It will help solve some has been used to develop high-yieldingsive list of scientific journal articles,of the things we have not been able hybrids in regular commodity canola,Thompson says.to fully crack, like sclerotinia resist-and was incorporated into B. junceaHes very involved in things likeance. Aside from that, theres also the with great success. The Ogura systemusing wild relatives to improve thewhole suite of tools around things like has since been used to develop mustardcanola genetic base. Van really built ourgenomic prediction. We can use whole quality juncea hybrids at AAFC.canola breeding effort in Canada bygenome sequencing and sequence-based In 2006 he arrived at Dowhiring some great scientists and mentor- selection methods to allow us to really AgroSciences, helping develop Nexeraing many young ones. He was alwaysenhance the yield potential of canola. hybrids. He produced the first clubrootgiving them just enough input to helpPredictive breeding allows for signifi-resistant Clearfield hybrid into the market. them, but never got in their way. cant improvements in yield, but those What I was able to do there reallyIn 2018 Ripley arrived at Nuseed astools can be applied to any other traits represented significant improvements inthe North American Canola R&D Lead.that are controlled by multiple genes, he yield performance of high oleic low-lino- Van not only has tremendous scienceadds. He predicts improvements in the lenic material and allowed the companyknowledge, but he also understands thefuture in canola quality, like increased to grow their acreage and market share.marketplace. He has a complete viewoil content and improvements in protein We showed that just because somethingof the canola industry and how as aproduction. is high oleic low-linolenic doesnt meanbreeder you can combine all the attrib- One caveat, he says, is that industry that you necessarily have to give up onutes that are required by growers andneeds to get consumers to accept these performance compared to traditionalend users and commodity traders andnew technologies. fatty acid profile canola. get them into that one single plant, saysRight now, we know that the According to Steve Thompson, whoRoger Rotariu, North American marketingEuropean Union still considers a lot of served as plant breeding and geneticslead for Nuseed.these novel technologies to be equivalent leader for the companys seed divisionAs he eyes retirement, Ripley hasto GM in terms of regulation. It all comes at the time, Ripleys approach to planttaken to expanding his breeding reper- down to consumer concern over genetic breeding at Dow was likely the mosttoire beyond oilseeds and into the realmmanipulation. We really have to not only scientific he had ever seen. of hot pepper breeding. As a hobby, hesthink about it from a scientific point of Van was at the absolute top of hisattempting to breed early-season hot chiliview or a commercial point of view, but game in terms of not only canola breed- peppers adapted to Western Canada. from a social science point of view. How ing but as a scientist in general. A lot ofThat shows Vans vision for both thedo we bring consumers along with us in plant breeders tend to get their kudosscience and the market. I keep teasingterms of an understanding that this is just and accomplishments documentedhim that I want in on his side project,the next phase of plant breeding? INTERNATIONAL EDITION 2021GERMINATION.CA 3"