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The Department of Plant Agriculture at the
University of Guelph
is committed to improving life through innovative
science, education
and service in plant agriculture.
Society's expectations of agriculture now
include a wide range
of health and environmental services such
as producing food with
nutraceuticals, protecting biodiversity, mitigating
climate change
and providing alternative energy sources.
The Department of Plant Agriculture offers
a PhD program in
four broad fields of the Plant Sciences:
Plant Breeding and Genetics,
Plant Biochemistry and Physiology, Crop Production Systems and Bioproducts.
Students conduct research on topics within
these fields.
My project is on sugar maples.
Sugar maples are a very important tree.
They form a very important part of the ecosystem.
We need to boil
large quantities of sap to produce little
amounts of syrup.
If we propagate trees which have higher sugar
content then the amount
of sap to be boiled reduces.
We can increase the production.
We can increase the productivity and we can
also reduce
the carbon footprint of this whole process.
So my project is on propagating superior trees,
elite trees which have
higher sugar content and to do this I am using
tissue culture techniques
and I'm also working on developing high density
genetic markers,
molecular markers, which I plan to associate
with the genes of interest
especially sugar content and tree architecture.
Usually consumers tend to prefer very light
syrup.
I found that the darker syrups have higher antioxidant potential.
Sugar maple
is a recalcitrant meaning it is very difficult
to propagate it using tissue culture.
With modification of light intensity we could
overcome the limitations of all previous researchers
and now we are
able to multiply sugar maple in large numbers.
Since the late 1800's, plant agricultural
scientists at
the University of Guelph have broadly impacted
the daily lives
of growers, consumers and industry in Canada
and throughout the world.
Researcher scientists in the Department of
Plant Agriculture release
and test new crop, fruit and vegetable varieties
that increase yields,
resist disease and pests, resist chilling,
add value to farmers' fields,
and benefit the environment, the consumer
and industry, helping to
bring more profit and choice to rural areas.
I'm looking at the non-darkening gene in pinto bean.
Actually, seed coat in pinto bean turns brown
during storage so it causes
value losses as consumers think that these
beans are old or aged.
We know that the beans are a good source of protein
and dietary fibre so I'm trying to improve
the quality by developing
non-darkening pinto beans.
To do that I developed a mapping population.
I'm going to study the correlation between
the non-darkening trait
and other important agronomic traits such
as days to flowering, again,
days to maturity, plant architecture which
is very important and also yield.
I used to work as a lab technician back home
in Iran.
I was passionate
about continuing my education.
Everything that I'm learning
I'm actually applying it.
I'm using it, that's the interesting thing.
I have the opportunity to use my knowledge
in the field to get experience
with what I learn.
PhD Graduates will possess a strong foundation
on which they can be
highly successful in science-related positions
in a variety of
working environments including government,
industry, consulting
and academics.
New state-of-the-art technologies and processes
being developed by
our researchers are helping to bring about
a new bio-based
renewable economy, better for both the farm
ecosystem and the consumer.
My project focuses on looking at
plant growth regulators and specifically
melatonin and serotonin which are kind of
a non-traditional but new category.
So most people are familiar with them as
mammalian neurohormones and neurotransmitters
but they're actually
present in plants and so my project is really
focusing on understanding
why they're there and how they're accomplishing
effects that we may see from them.
It's very interesting for melatonin and serotonin.
Because they are found
in humans it has really big impact for things
like consuming crops and
medicinal plants because if we have
high amounts of these
different compounds in plants
it's something we need to know.
Melatonin and serotonin are very strongly
implicated in promoting
plant growth and survival under stressful
conditions so by understanding
how they work we can actually take that and
exploit it to improve
plant growth in an industrial situation.
For me I think the most interesting part is
that
I'm able to combine two usually disparate fields.
I'm doing a lot of plant physiology
and microscopy work but I'm also able to combine
that with analytical chemistry and those are two fields
that are usually very separate
but by bringing them together
you really get to see a full picture
but you also get the numbers behind it.
It's very unique
and it's very exciting.
The facilities at the University of Guelph
are amazing for plant research.
I couldn't believe it when I found how much greenhouse space there was.
So we have access to analytical equipment
and we have
access to cryo equipment and we have access
to microscopes
which is very unusual but it all is brought
together under this
conservation umbrella and it makes it a very uniquely rewarding place to work.
The thing I noticed the most when I first
got to Guelph was how big
but how beautiful the campus is.
Students are really invited into Guelph
and it makes a very welcoming city to move to.
Guelph actually has
a really great system of walking trails
that are very accessible
from campus and from a lot of the other areas in Guelph
so that's been very nice.
PhD graduate students receive generous Research Assistantships
which can be supplemented by numerous Teaching Assistantships.
There are several Scholarships available in
the Department and College
to support their programs.
For more information regarding the application process
please contact the Graduate Co-ordinator.
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