Canola is Australia's third largest crop by value and the most important break crop for cereal production. At low pH exchangeable aluminium (Al3+), manganese (Mn3+) and hydrogen (H+) ions get solubilised into a solution form. Canola in Western Australia is mostly grown on sandy-textured soils, which are prone to acidity and contain Aluminium ions at concentrations that are toxic to the plant and at concentrations > 10 mg/kg below 10cm can reduce yield by > 50% in low rainfall environments. Aluminium can rapidly inhibit root growth at micromolar concentrations. Manganese (Mn2+) ions also contribute to acid soils along with aluminium.  Effects of low pH and Mn2+ on plant growth is leaf crinkling, necrotic lesions, inhibition of photosynthesis and reduced yield.  The effect of the toxicities by both aluminium and manganese differs depending on soil types.

New canola varieties with soil acid tolerance can support management approaches such as liming to significantly raise canola production on acidic soils in regions with soil pH < 4.8 at 10cm. This includes large areas of Western Australia and significant grain production hectares in South East NSW, Wimmera and Central Vic, Southern Vic, Tasmania, Lower EP, York Peninsula, Mid North SA and Southern SA. Whilst surface acidity can be ameliorated by applying lime, it is more challenging to incorporate lime deeper and can take several years before these soils are productive.

This complementary management option will increase the tools available, and reduce risk, for growers managing low pH soils. This is considered the best approach due to:

1. Lime is a costly approach to reduce acid soil levels and can take many years to penetrate deep enough into the soil profile, resulting in the plant roots still being exposed to acid soils.
2. Acid soil tolerant crops provide more consistent and higher yields while the benefits from the slower soil amelioration management practices take effect.
3. Genetic adaptation of canola germplasm to acidic soils provides a cost-effective initial option where soil acidity is too severe, and the costs associated with amelioration are not economical.

Previous GRDC investment has found that there is statistically significant, and heritable genetic diversity in canola to acid soils. This next investment has been developed to (i) develop high throughput phenotyping methods that mirrors field conditions for screening soil acidity (ii) identify genomic regions, determine the loci and/or genes and develop molecular tools including diagnostic molecular markers that are associated with tolerance to soil acidity deploying in breeding programs, for use in developing improved acid soil tolerant but high yielding canola varieties for target production environments in Australian canola growing regions.

Please note the following:

1. GRDC’s  strategic partnership, Analytics for the Australian Grains Industry (AAGI), can offer the following analytics support as a GRDC in-kind contribution such  as fit for purpose experimental design and sampling advice and comparative  single site and multi-environment genetic analyses of traits from pre-breeding  trials. AAGI can also support the analysis of high-throughput data. To access  this support, applicants must enquire with AAGI directly and describe the  proposed support scope in their tender. The tender description should include  an estimate of workload and in-kind valuation provided by AAGI.

   Please make enquiries to the University of Adelaide, biometryhub@adelaide.edu.au, attention Julian Taylor. Successful applicants will be required to complete an Analytical Collaboration Plan to specify the analytics support AAGI will provide. A sample Plan template is available from AAGI. Please note, applicants that decline AAGI support must provide a technical and value-for-money rationale for not using in-kind AAGI support.

2. Collaboration  between research organisations, Australian canola breeding companies and  industry is mandatory. All  collaborations should designate a lead organisation as per the Tender Terms  and Conditions.

3. GRDC is seeking  co-investment of at least 50:50 from research partners for this contract. Please see the budget template for definitions of cash and in-kind  contributions.