Novel genetic technologies have the potential to revolutionize 21st century crop improvement. Transgenics, cisgenics, Zinc-Finger Nucleases, RNAi, TILLING, and VIGS (viral induced gene silencing) are robust research tools which are increasingly used in major crops to identify candidate gene function or modify plant phenotypes. However, apart from transgenesis, these technologies have not yet been developed for commercial plant breeding. The hurdles and bottlenecks will be explored in this meeting.
The massive expansion of whole genome and cDNA sequencing provides new insights into genome structure and function, and enables the identification of candidate genes for reverse genetics. This, combined with various ‘omics’ technologies and high-throughput phenotyping that can link traits to molecular markers, will result in the routine implementation of marker assisted selection and various recombinant DNA technologies in plant breeding. This conference is devoted to advances in biotechnology, both GM and non-GM, for functional genomics and crop improvement. It is aimed at students, researchers and plant breeders interested in methods for ‘molecular’ plant breeding. The call for offered papers and posters is now open.
Invited speakers include:
Keith Edwards, University of Bristol UK
SNP discovery in wheat; a new era for breeders and academics
Mario Gils, IPK, Germany
A novel hybrid seed production system for plants
Mike Murray, Dow, USA
EXZACT Precision Technology, a versatile toolkit for crop improvement
Win van Camp, Crop Design BASF, NL
TraitMill: a high-throughput biotechnological approach to yield improvement in field crops
Jonathan Napier, Rothamsted Research, UK
Rational metabolic engineering of transgenic plants for omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis
Cristobal Uauy, John Innes Centre, UK
Gene targets for TILLING in cereals" (title to be confirmed)
Papers and posters from the conference will be reproduced in a volume of Aspects of Applied Biology, which will be available to delegates at the conference. Please send your offer to the AAB office. (Email to Rebecca@aab.org.uk; Fax +44 (0)1789 470234). Alternatively, you can submit an offer online, giving the title of the paper, authors, affiliations and a short synopsis of your paper. Click on ABSTRACTS in the left hand column of the AAB home page, then click on the conference title. You can register your email and, after being sent a password, can upload your offer. Please indicate whether your offer is for a platform presentation or a poster. Please ensure your pop up blocker is off, otherwise the Abstract may not upload properly.
