Biology’s Ingo Ensminger was recently awarded $4.7 million in funding for his FastPheno project by Genome Canada, a non-profit organization funded by the Government of Canada and co-funding partners. Genome Canada’s Genomic Applications Partnership Program (GAPP) brings new applied genomics solutions to issues facing Canadians, and supports collaborations in forestry, agrifood, the environment, and health.
The challenge? Canada has 328 million hectares of forest, but with climate change impacting tree health and productivity, sustainable forest management is essential; the trees planted today need to withstand future climates. Genomic resources can be used to accelerate breeding cycles and select genotypes that are better adapted and more resilient; however, large-scale phenotyping is needed to assess adaptive traits in breeding populations of thousands of trees.
