Hops The field of plant biotechnology is broader than what is traditionally thought of as “agriculture”, with producers and companies all striving to derive more value from crops and specialty plants. The Plant Products for Health and Wellness program at PBI is focused on the creation of such value by developing high-value plant-derived products and production platforms for the prevention and treatment of diseases that affect Canadians and the world.

At the forefront of this program area is the NRC cluster initiative, Plants for Health & Wellness (PHW). PHW builds on the success of the Crops for Enhanced Human Health program (2002 – 2007) which formed the foundation of research on bioactive molecules produced in plants which enhance human health and quality of life. PHW now carries on this research, in concert with industry and key strategic partners, and promotes technology transfer and commercialization through the BioAccess Commercialization Centre. NRC-PBI is working with NRC-IRAP and NRC-CISTI in an integrated environment to achieve success in strengthening and growing Western Canada’s natural health product, functional foods, and pharmaceutical industries.

Plant Products for Health & Wellness uses functional genomics approaches to dissect metabolic pathways for bioactives related to improved health and develop genetic technologies to enrich plants for desirable bioactives. Within this program area, NRC-PBI also employs analytical chemistry to determine chemical composition of plants and purify such components for evaluation, and researchers develop novel host plant systems for production of novel therapeutic and bioactive molecules and develop technologies for increased expression of novel molecules in plants.

Program Successes

The Natural Products Genomics Resource (NAPGEN) is a consortium of Canadian researchers investigating plant natural products and the biosynthetic pathways that produces them. This consortium, led by NRC-PBI, was initiated in 2005 and has since developed over 1,000,000 sequences from 34 plant species all relevant to human health and without extensive genomic information developed prior to NAPGEN’s work.
Development of valuable flax genomics tools; over 180,000 flax genetic sequences were generated – such genomic tools will contribute to crop improvement efforts and allow farmers to exploit value-added opportunities for flax; NRC-PBI is working with Flax 2015, the flax growers of Canada, and small and medium-sized enterprises to make discoveries important to producers.
Successful development of cell culture technologies for important nutraceutical plant species; these enhanced tools will be used to develop new varieties on a commercial scale.

Resources

The genetic sequences developed from NAPGEN will assist scientists in finding genes involved in the biosynthetic pathways that give rise to important phytochemicals. Identifying such genes can help researchers create strategies for the development of new and improved plant varieties that contain concentrated nutritional benefits. This gene discovery research could eventually lead to the fortification of ordinary foods with beneficial bioactive molecules.

NAPGEN presents opportunities that will add value to the health-enhancing plants grown in Canada, increase the prospects for new high-value natural product, and has the potential to result in novel plant-derived pharmaceuticals.

Click here to go to the NAPGEN page.