Club^2 – U Lethbridge iGEM Team

Create a diagnostic kit to detect the early formation of the infecting spores produced by clubroot, a pathogen that is infecting cabbage, cauliflower, kale, turnips, and canola crops around the world.

Farmers around the world are facing a pathogenic problem known as Clubroot. This pathogen infects the Brassicaceae family, including cabbage, cauliflower, kale, turnips, and canola. It ruins crop yield by infecting said fields and depriving nutrients of its host. Our project, Club^2, is to create a diagnostic kit to detect the early formation of the infecting spores produced by clubroot. If this is successful, the plan would be to move towards a mitigation plan where we would use Pedobacter heparinus (a symbiotic bacteria with Canola) and insert a plasmid via transformation that would disrupt the lifecycle of clubroot. Our goal is to help our farmers to save money and limit the hurdles they have to go through.