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USask and University of Calgary researchers develop clubroot mapping tool

A team of research scientists have developed a new tool to help contain clubroot. The researchers, from the University of Saskatchewan and University of Calgary, created ClubrootTracker: an interactive tool that will help farmers locate clubroot-infected areas using GPS data. It can be used by farmers, researchers, and industry and government representatives to share the clubroot status of their land.

A description of ClubrootTracker, its current and future features, and how to use it are detailed in an article published in the June issue of Plant Health Progress.

Earlier this year, Edel Pérez-López, one of the researchers, made headlines for other clubroot-focused research. Pérez-López, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of biology, built on software programs developed by University of Saskatchewan computer science students Brett Trost and Matthew Waldner and their supervisor Anthony Kusalik, in collaboration with the university’s clubroot research team. In doing so, Pérez-López identified for the first time 32 “effector” proteins in the clubroot genome that trigger the “infection instructions” provided by genes.

University of Saskatchewan researchers are now looking into how the 32 proteins are involved in the infection process, and how best to use them to combat clubroot disease progression in infected plants.