66 | Advancing Seed in Alberta appreciate the game changing potential of this technology,” said Michael Fromm, chief executive of Epicrop Technologies. In the company’s field and greenhouse trials, epigenetically improved plants — soybeans, tomatoes, sorghum and Arabidopsis — show increased yields and stress tolerance. “Increasing yield and stress tolerance are key goals of most seed companies. Epicrop’s method has the potential to provide these traits by adding epigenetic information directly to the seeds of commercial varieties without adding any genetic material. The unique features of this method readily fit into traditional commercial breeding and seed production methods to facilitate company adoption of this system.” Poppies on the Prairies In Alberta, University of Lethbridge Department of Biological Sciences researcher Igor Kovalchuk has gained the reputation as a world leader in epigenetics. His goal: to produce hardier crops that are increasingly resistant to stress and even able to detect pollution. This capability, in turn, will help to improve the efficiency, profitability and overall success of farms. Thanks to Kovalchuk, in fact, the Canadian Prairies could one day be dotted with fields of medicinal poppies. He is currently working with a Canadian biotech company that plans to develop a market for the high thebaine poppy industry in Canada. A significant cash crop opportunity, high thebaine poppies are used to create valuable medicines, but unlike their traditional counterparts, cannot easily be converted into heroin. Kovalchuk is also a driving force behind the establishment of the Alberta Epigenetics Network, the first epigenetic network in Canada. “Plants have an amazing capacity to respond immediately to stress and to propagate this response so future generations can be better prepared,” he says. One of the ways plants do this, of course, is via epigenetic changes. For Van Lookeren Campagne, the doors yet to be unlocked by epigenetics are many, and he’s excited as new research initiatives are undertaken to bring epigenetic technologies to market. “We now understand the machinery that epigenetic changes are related to, and we’re able to tune that machinery. Now we have to find the applications we can deploy this toward. It holds a lot of potential and promise.” Marc Zienkiewicz, Marc Airhart and Dana Yates Editor’s Note: This article was produced with files from Marc Airhart (University of Texas at Austin), Justin Raikes (Epicrop Technologies), Dana Yates (University of Lethbridge) University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor Sally Mackenzie co-founded Epicrop Technologies, which develops technologies that make use of epigenetics. Photo courtesy University of Nebraska-Lincoln Alberta’s Igor Kovalchuk has gained the reputation as a world leader in epigenetics. Photo courtesy University of Lethbridge THIS IS THE ONE Yield, excellence, anywhere. Leading midge tolerant CWRS with lodging resistance. provenseed.ca CDCTitaniumVB Proven® Seed is a registered trademark of Nutrien Ag Solutions (Canada) Inc. Nutrien Ag Solutions™ and Design is a trademark of Nutrien Ag Solutions, Inc. 10/18-58389-1 CWRS 58389_1 NAS_Proven_Titanium_7-125x3-25.indd 1 2018-10-10 6:38 AM