Professor S. Jabaji, Plant Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University.
Our second project focuses on plant breeding for resistance to powdery mildew in cannabis, in collaboration with McGill University professor Suha Jabaji.
A fungal disease
Powdery mildew is a foliar fungal disease that attacks most cannabis strains and is considered a problem in the industry. Plant yield and profitability can be severely compromised by pathogen infections. Powdery mildew is a difficult disease to treat, and early detection can prevent crop losses and improve overall yields.
The proposed research project will apply new molecular breeding approaches to obtain durable, broad-spectrum resistance to powdery mildew. The project will characterize susceptibility genes (S-genes) in cannabis varieties and deactivate their functions using reverse genetics approaches, which should confer lasting resistance to the disease.
Developing cannabis varieties with better resistance to powdery mildew will benefit the cannabis industry by reducing and/or eliminating the need for fungicides and producing higher yields. This project has been funded by the MITACS fast-track program for three years and is currently supported by post-doc Ines Ben Rejeb.