Ottawa Research and Development Centre
The Ottawa Research and Development Centre (Ottawa RDC) located in Ottawa, Ontario was established in 1886 by the Government of Canada under The Experimental Farm Station Act. It is one of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's (AAFC) network of 20 research and development centres.
Areas of Research
Ottawa Research and Development Centre’s regional mandate is to develop new and improved spring and winter wheat, oats, barley, corn and short-season soybeans varieties and investigate agronomic practices and technologies for eastern Canada.
The Centre houses several national biological collections and leads biosystematics research on insects/arachnids/nematodes, fungi/bacteria and vascular plants relevant to agriculture, including biological control of invasive species. Ottawa RDC leads national research in carbon and nitrogen cycling in air, water and soil.
In addition, the National Identification Services (NIS) helps various agencies by providing authoritative identification of insects/nematodes, plants, fungi, and bacteria as required by various federal and provincial legislations.
Search Research projects from the Ottawa Research and Development Centre to learn more about what we do.
Sector Needs
The Ottawa RDC carries out innovative research, development, technology and knowledge transfer activities in support of the AAFC's Strategic Plan for Science, which includes:
Crop improvement at Ottawa RDC focuses on Eastern Canadian producers located between Manitoba and PEI with an emphasis on oats, wheat (Spring and Winter), barley, corn and soybean. Experts in crop breeding, genetics, genomics, molecular biology, physiology, agronomy, pathology, quality evaluation, and mycotoxin chemistry are working to strengthen the linkages along the value chain (from production to processing and consumption), improve food attributes, and address threats to Canadian agriculture.
Research is conducted to enhance the environmental performance of agricultural production systems, and to maintain or access new international markets. Research includes:
- Studying and monitoring changes in soils, crop conditions, land use and land management (from watershed to national scales) using satellite technologies and integrated modeling.
- Developing new methods and technologies to produce and analyze data describing soil, land use and climate for agricultural areas in Canada to improve agricultural land management, land use planning and policy development.
- Systems-based research and modeling to understand the effects and trade-offs of management practices at the field, farm and watershed scale on soil microorganisms, nutrients, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and airborne and emerging contaminants to assess and mitigate agricultural impacts on the environment (e.g., air and water), public health and agricultural productivity.
Biodiversity research includes assessing agricultural biodiversity (vascular plants, fungi, bacteria, insects, arachnids and nematodes), identifying emerging risks, and assessing impact on international trade and regulatory compliance. Biosystematics research on organisms critical to Canadian agriculture (new and existing crops, their relatives; weeds; pests, beneficial and biocontrol insects, arachnids and nematodes; plant diseases and plant-enhancing fungi; animal pathogens and plant-growth-promoting bacteria) helps to protect crop production and contribute to crop diversification.
Meet our Scientists
Find out more about the scientists at Ottawa Research and Development Centre through their profiles below.
You can also visit the Fields of Science campaign featuring 11 Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientists from coast to coast. Discover why they chose to pursue a career in agriculture and learn more about their research.
More information
Scientists and researchers
Publications
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The Building Better Barley Podcast Episode Exciting new varieties on the horizon, https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Qni9uJWiXlmX4BvBo1Zy9?go=1&sp_cid=f56f2daab073bfc1cd83a06e9f49ceff&utm_source=embed_player_p&utm_medium=desktop&nd=1
2023 - View publication details
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*Foroud NA, González-Peña Fundora D, Stasiuk S, Eranthodi A, Ryabova D, Shostak K, Subramaniam R, Rampitsch C, Sridhar P, Sharma T, Loewen M, Thakor N. Modification of the mitogen-activation protein kinase kinase 1 (Mkk1) activation loop in Fusarium graminearum. 16th European Fungal Genetics Congress; Fusarium Workshop. Innsbruck, AUSTRIA. March 5-8, 2023. (Oral Presentation)
2023 - View publication details
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Ward Smith and Brian Grant. 2023. Using models to help ensure farmers receive credits
2023 - View publication details
for sustainable management. Innovative Farmers Association of Ontario Conference, Presentation and panellist. London, Ontario, February 15-16, 2023.
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Toward evidence that homologs of RPW8 act through salicylic acid signaling in powdery mildew resistance in flax
2023 - View publication details
Vanessa Clemis1,2, Mohsin Zaidi, Frank You3, Chunfang Zheng3, Sylvie Cloutier3, and Bourlaye Fofana1
1Charlottetown Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 440 University Avenue, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, C1A 4N6, Canada
2University of Prince Edward Island, 550 University Avenue, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, C1A 4P3, Canada
3Ottawa Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0C6, Canada
*bourlaye.fofana@agr.gc.ca
Powdery mildew (PM) is an obligate biotrophic fungus (Podosphaera lini) causing high yield loss to flax (Linum usitatissimum L.). To date, no PM resistance genes have been fully functionally characterized. Using GWAS, we identified a locus harboring three flax homologs of the Arabidopsis RPW8 genes that confer broad-spectrum resistance to powdery mildew. Here, we characterized the gene expression profile of the three RPW8 candidate genes following PM inoculation. The data showed that, similar to RPW8.2 acting through the salicylic acid (SA) signaling pathway, the RPW8 homologs Lus10000835 and Lus10000836 are highly expressed in resistant flax lines compared to the suscpetible lines. In contrast, the flax RPW8 homolog Lus10009328 was highly expressed in the susceptible lines, suggesting a different signaling pathway from the other two homologs. RPW8.1 has been shown to activate ethylene signaling through aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate oxidase gene isoform 4 (ACO4) and, this elevated ethylene negatively regulates the expression of RPW8.1, thereby attenuating its mediated-cell death and disease resistance when no disease is present to avoid unnecessary defense responses. We conclude that PM resistance induced by RPW8 in flax may mainly be activated through SA signaling pathways, and perhaps similarly to the ethylene signaling in Arabidopsis.
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Nour Nissan, Elroy R. Cober, James Green, Ashkan Golshani, Bahram Samanfar: A Bioinformatics In-Silico Approach to Obtaining a Short-List of Candidates for Novel Sources of Resistance Against a Terrible Yield Robber, SCN. Plant and Animal Genome (PAG30) 2023, San Diego, USA.
2023 - View publication details
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Vasudevan A, Zheng C, Ens J, Pozniak CJ, You FM, Cloutier S (2023) SHW × elite wheat backcross introgression lines: Is there any bias in retention of SHW genome fraction during pre-breeding? Proc 30th Plant and Animal Genome Conference, San Diego, CA, Jan 13-18, PO0521 (poster)
2023 - View publication details
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Cloutier S, Zheng C, Rashid K, Molina O, Edwards T, Lévesque-Lemay, Froese S, Jackle K, House M, Young L, Booker H, Ta’ran B, You F (2023) Fusarium wilt resistance in flax is controlled by a major gene on chromosome 1. Flax Genomics Workshop, Proc 30th Plant and Animal Genome Conference, San Diego, CA, Jan 13-18 (oral – invited)
2023 - View publication details
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You FM, Cloutier S (2023) Multi-trait multi-model QTL mapping strategies in flax. Proc 30th Plant and Animal Genome Conference, San Diego, CA, Jan 13-18 (Oral presentation)
2023 - View publication details
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Klymiuk V, Haile T, Ens J, Wiebe K, N’Diaye A, Fatiukha A, Krugman T, Ben-David R, Hubmer S, Cloutier S, Pozniak CJ (2023) Genetic architecture of rust resistance in a wheat (Triticum turgidum) diversity panel. Proc 30th Plant and Animal Genome Conference, San Diego, CA, Jan 13-18, PE0572 (poster)
2023 - View publication details
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Cloutier S and Wheat Initiative Members (2023) Importance of science and collaboration in addressing food security: Role of the Wheat Initiative. Triticeae Genetics and Genomics, Session 1 Workshop: Progress in structural and functional genomics, Proc 30th Plant and Animal Genome Conference, San Diego, CA, Jan 13-18 (oral – invited)
2023 - View publication details
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