Swift Current research scientist receives national plant breeding and genetics award
A keen interest in farming at a young age was the spark for Dr. Ron Knox to pursue a scientific career on the forefront of applying plant genetics to wheat breeding.
His work as a research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) Swift Current Research and Development Centre has been recognized with a national award of excellence.
He is the recipient of the 2023 Canadian Plant Breeding and Genetics Award. This award is presented annually to a public or private sector researcher for contributing significantly to the advancement of Canadian plant agriculture through research in plant breeding and genetics. It is co-sponsored by Seeds Canada and Germination, a seed-focused media publication.
Knox told the Prairie Post it is very satisfying to receive this acknowledgement of his work. He felt it was a result of using opportunities that came his way and a supportive work environment.
“It’s nice to receive the award and the recognition of all the work that I’ve put in over my career, but it’s about being in the right place at the right time. Another part of that is having support. I’ve had great support staff, technicians and professional colleagues that have helped along the way. … I might be getting the award, but it’s not without the help and support of many, many people.”
He traced his interest in plant breeding back to his childhood years on a farm north of Moose Jaw and then the guidance from a university mentor.
“I think my interest in crops was strong from an early age,” he said. “Then I went to the University of Saskatchewan for training and had an advisor, Dr. Bryan Harvey, who is quite a renowned barley breeder. As much as I had an interest in farming, I had allergies that prevented me from going in that direction. So I was looking for other options and he pointed me in the direction of research. I’ve always been a very curious person and research was a good fit. I like to ask questions and discover new things.”
His career developed step by step from there. He began working at the AAFC research centre at Swift Current in 1984 as a technician in a research program, but he wanted to do his own research.
“Then an opportunity opened up here in Swift Current for the biologist position, and with the support of my colleagues we thought there would be value in having somebody that can take on the genetic work related to breeding,” he recalled.
He was hired as a biologist in 1987 and went away for three years to do his PhD at the University of Manitoba.
“That’s where the ideas of using DNA markers and breeding were starting to come into play,” he said. “So I got in on the ground floor on that and it’s just been a great experience, being basically in the right place at the right time.”
His PhD research on the genetics of disease resistance took place during the early stages of scientific work with DNA markers.
“It was pretty crude types of markers back then,” he recalled. “It was very laborious to use markers, but as time passed, markers became easier to work with. The technology advanced so that the cost came
down and made it feasible for the actual application of markers to breeding.”
He has been working as a research scientist at the Swift Current research facility since 1994 with an emphasis on genetics and the application of genetic tools to plant pathology. His research has included disease resistance, the development of wheat breeding DNA markers and other agronomic and grain quality traits.
“There was lots of imagining the potential of DNA markers and what they could do for breeding,” he said. “I was fortunate to be closely interfaced with two breeding programs, the durum program here and the bread wheat breeding programs. There was also superimposed on that the availability of industry funds through the wheat check-off that were coming into place and matching funds within the government. So we were able to have resources, equipment, people and start not only do research on markers, but implementing them to actually make selections in the breeding program.”
There have been various advances in the use of DNA profiling techniques. He originally used a technique called restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers, which was a complex process.
“The main way of visualizing those markers were using isotopes and photographic methodologies to reveal what we call polymorphisms in the DNA,” he said. “That’s differences in the DNA. We looked at those differences between lines and we correlated those differences with the traits of interest to the breeders, for example a disease resistance gene.”
The creation of the polymerase chain reaction ([PCR) method was a significant development for the identification of DNA markers.
“That was one major step and we were able to start developing markers that could be economically feasible to screen breeding lines,” he said. “Over the course of my career the marker technologies have further advanced, still using the PCR, and then looking at different types of markers. Now we’re looking at what’s
called single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, based on single base changes in the DNA. We correlate those to the traits of interest and we’re able to apply those markers to breeding lines and make selections.”
The improved techniques over time have made it possible to identify more DNA markers during the research process.
“In the old days we thought a hundred markers were great,” he said. “Now we deal with thousands of markers across the genome and we correlate those with the traits of interest to establish the markers that we use for selection and breeding. … Then the breeding material is still ultimately assessed in the field for the various traits. That’s where we see whether the markers worked or not. In many cases they’ve allowed the breeder to enrich the population for the trait of interest, whether it’s disease resistance, a quality trait or some agronomic trait.”
Another aspect of his research work has focused on the introduction of the double haploid technique into the breeding program to produce true breeding line in a single generation.
“In the traditional breeding process, it takes about six generations of inbreeding to get a true breeding line,” he said. “The double haploid process has helped saved a little bit of time off the process, but there’s still a lot of testing and selection that has to go on. It doesn’t really shorten the length of time from our cross being made to a variety being commercialized, but the marker work does help introduce traits more quickly into commercial cultivars.”
Knox has contributed to the development of around 75 wheat cultivars through his work as a research scientist to select DNA markers and traits for different cultivars.
“I have a file where I document some of those things, but each one has its own unique properties or advancements that’s nice to see the contribution to,” he said. “In terms of durum, I was quite thrilled with the registration of Transcend durum, because it was our first durum double haploid cultivar. It’s nice to see it out and in production now.”
He has contributed to scientific knowledge in his field through various research publications. ResearchGate, a networking service for scientists and researchers to share their work, lists Knox as an author and co-author to 249 publications.
His research work during the last few years has focused on increasing resistance in durum wheat to Fusarium head blight, a fungal disease of cereal crops.
“Resistance is very complex, but the disease itself is fairly complex too,” he said. “It manifests itself in different ways. It affects the plant itself, reducing yield, but it also affects grade and processing quality. It also imparts a toxin on the grain. So selecting for resistance and developing markers for that and then ways to improve selection for it is very challenging.”
He believes there is still huge opportunity and potential to use plant breeding and genetics research in agriculture.
“There's definitely lots of opportunities for improving both the genetic tools and other types of tools within breeding,” he said. “We'll need all those tools, because it gets harder and harder to make advances and gains. It takes more energy and more effort to make those gains. You hear people talking about gathering the low hanging fruit. I think in breeding that has basically been done. To make those incremental increases takes that much more effort and we need to be able to apply all these various tools that are being developed or have potential for development going forward.”