Impact of fungicide treatment on microbial communities associated with late season root rot in canola

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Bayer CropScience provides crop protection solutions to Canadian farmers, with a large commercial focus forproviding Canadian canola producers with management options to protect canola crops from pathogens, duringseed emergence and throughout the growing season. Prairie canola producers are encountering an emergingproblem of late season root rot, which can result in significant yield and economic losses to producers (CanolaWatch, 2014). The late season pathology appears after the efficacy period of conventional seed treatments,rendering these treatments ineffective in the control of late season root rot. A previous Engage grant used theexpertise and infrastructure of the Yost lab to quantify the microbial communities that are associated withcanola plants suffering from late season root rot symptoms. It was found that fungal organisms belonging to theLeptosphaeriacaea family were most closely associated with plant tissue pathology, and were notablyassociated with bacterial groups of Orchobactrum and Shingobacterium. The data-sets generated from theEngage project provides the necessary tools for continuing this research through the Engage Plus program. Thecurrent proposal will study the effects of an experimental fungicide, in development by Bayer CropScience, onthe microbial community structure of treated canola crops that are grown in field plots previously impacted bylate season root rot. The results will provide a high-resolution quantification of the microbial communities andan understanding of how the microbial community members are impacted by the experimental compound.This data will provide Bayer CropScience with a greater understanding of the mechanisms of action of theexperimental fungicide in preventing late season root rot and its impact on the indigenous soil and endophyticmicrobiota. The results will be of direct benefit to Bayer CropScience by advancing their pest managementproduct development efforts.