Developing genotyping platforms to enable discovery, quality control and genomic breeding at CoverCress Inc.

As the demand for renewal fuel feedstocks continues to grow, non-food feedstocks production must significantly increase to meet demand. Winter oilseeds grown in cooler climates provide opportunities to meet this demand without changing existing agricultural practices or displacing land while reducing nutrient loss and soil erosion. CoverCress™ is being introduced as a winter oilseed crop in the U.S. Midwest to be grown as a part of crop rotations to increase land productivity and meet the demands for non-food, sustainable feedstocks to produce renewable fuels. CoverCress™ is a domesticated version of field pennycress that confers traits that reduce dormancy, reduce fiber content, increase yields, improve maturity, and increase the quantity and quality of oil. Through a decade of product research and development, CCI has utilized traditional breeding techniques and modern gene editing technology to create CoverCress™ as a winter cash crop for feed and fuel applications. While we have been very successful in developing products using the tools mentioned above, we are reaching a point where genotyping platforms are required to identify solutions for next generation traits, improve germplasm purity and to enable molecular breeding fingerprint the genomes of breeding populations to accelerate agronomic gains.

 

This webinar describes key genotyping platforms identified through a partnership of CCI and LGC Biosearch Technologies which will then be used in various applications of CoverCress™ product development. These projects demonstrated the flexibility of genotyping platforms for applications within the CCI program. We have started implementing one of these genotyping platforms - Flex-Seq™ that covers 5,000 unique regions in the genome to aid in genetic mapping, genomic selection, and fingerprinting of lines. We anticipate data accuracy, reproducibility, and coverage of the genome will allow us to deliver future products on accelerated timelines.

 

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