National Research Council of Canada

Plant Biotechnology Institute

The Plant Biotechnology Institute is one of five National
Research Council institutes involved in biotechnology.
PBI's mission is to perform, assist and promote strategic
research in plant biotechnology to improve and diversify
Canadian industry and strengthen Canada's competitive
position in the global economy. PBI has established links
and contracts with major Canadian and international
industries.

RESEARCH AREAS
Carbohydrate modification; cell technologies; gene
expression; legume biotechnology; plant growth regulation;
molecular pathology; promoter/gene discovery technology; seed
oil biotechnology; and seed adaption modifications.
Services: DNA synthesis and sequencing; nuclear magnetic
resonance and mass spectroscopy; Transgenic Plant Centre.

CURRENT ACTIVITIES
PBI focuses its research in three main areas:
-Strategic technologies; Crop performance; Crop product
diversification.
Some research activities in these areas include:
-Canola meal improvement through biotechnology
-Investigating Blackleg disease resistance in canola
-Genetic engineering of wheat
-Modifying starch composition in wheat
-Developing transformation systems for barley
-Developing transformation systems for peas and lentils
-Developing abscisic (ABA) and jasmonic (JA) acid
analogues that mimic the action of naturally occurring ABA
and JA to trigger the plant's response system.
-Developing a super-high erucic acid rapeseed
-Developing vectors based on the two-hybrid system
-Identifying and characterizing regulatory elements and
genes.

MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS
-PBI's Cereal Biotechnology Group is a world leader in the
area of genetic engineering of wheat. This group had
developed a proprietary enhanced regeneration system for
wheat and barley which permits the production of fully
fertile transgenic wheat in a very short period of time.
-PBI is also one of the major world centres in canola
transformation. Its work has resulted in transferring a
number of agronomically useful genes into canola through
genetic engineering.

Company Details

Number of Employees: 188

Company Information

Royal Hinther
Title: Business Development Officer
Area of Responsibility: Domestic Sales & Marketing
Telephone: (306) 975-5568
Fax: (306) 975-4008
Email: Click Here

Services

Plant Biotechnology

Biotechnology