4^th International Conference on Plant Genomics July 14-15, 2016 Brisbane, Australia

Biography:

Sandra Patussi Brammer has completed her PhD at the age of 33 years from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and complementary studies from Cereal Research Centre- Winnipeg/Canada. She has been a collaborator at the University of Passo Fundo, advising students for master and doctoral courses in the agronomy area. She is researcher at National Wheat Research Center – Embrapa Wheat/Biotechnology Laboratory. Her current research activities are focused on plant genetics with emphasis on the molecular markers and cytogenetics molecular of winter cereals and related species. She has published more than 30 papers in reputed journals and 10 book chapters.

Abstract:

Wheat leaf rust, caused by Puccinia triticina, endemic of South America, it is an important wheat disease. The Brazilian wheat cultivar Toropi has proven, durable adult plant resistance (APR) to leaf rust and pre-haustorial resistance phenotype. The objective of this study was to identify, characterize and to understand the interaction between P. triticina and Toropi by quantitatively evaluating the temporal transcription genes related to infection and defense in wheat. RNA-Seq libraries from the Toropi here produced at 0, 6, 12, 24 hours after inoculation with P. triticina. Three replicates of each innoculated and control libraries were sequenced for each timepoint. A comparison to the Chinese Spring (CS42) transcriptome was performed aiming to identify putative genes unique to the Toropi. A total of 58 million bp per library were produced: 10,181 contigs of which 9,156 were common to CS42 and 1,025 were unique to Toropi expressed only in the inoculated libraries. The expression profiles of 15 selected genes varied over time. Classical defence genes, including peroxidases, b-1,3-glucanases and an endochitinase were expressed (pre and post-haustorial) over the 72 h infection time course, while induction of transcription of other infection-related genes with a potential role in defence, although variable was maintained through-out. These genes had a role in plant lignification, oxidative stress, the regulation of energy supply, water and lipid transport, and cell cycle regulation. These Toropi specific sequences could represent new resistance candidate genes to be used in wheat breeding and to guide further functional studies on APR to leaf rust.

Biography:

Yu-Cai Liao has completed his PhD in 1994 from Aachen University of Technology, Germany and Postdoctoral studies in 1996 from this university. He is the Director of Molecular Biotechnology Laboratory of Triticeae Crops, Huazhong Agricultural University. He has published more than 100 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of international and national journals.

Abstract:

Fusarium pathogens cause serious plant diseases affecting wheat, barley, maize and other cereals productions globally. The fungal pathogens produce various mycotoxins that are highly toxic to human and domestic animals. Plant germplasms with natural resistance against Fusarium pathogens and mycotoxins are inadequate. A recombinant antibody isolated by phage display from a chicken-derived immunocompetent antibody library displayed Fusarium genus-specificity. Constitutive expression in plants of the antibody or antibody fusions with different peptides conferred durable resistance specific to Fusarium pathogens with no effect on non-Fusarium organisms. This antibody-mediated pathogen-specific resistance was also regulated by Fusarium-inducible promoter to generate active immunity in plants. Wheat plants expressing the antibody-antifungal peptide fusion protein showed significantly enhanced resistance against Fusarium pathogens and mycotoxins; the infection of the wheat plants by Fusarium pathogens rapidly activated the expression of this antibody fusion and this activation played a profound role in the disease resistance. This resistance was genetically stable and could be transferred to different wheat varieties. Further characterization of the fungal antigen recognized by the Fusarium genus-specific antibody demonstrated that a highly conserved single gene-encoded antigen that specifically interacted with the disease resistance antibody, providing molecule evidences for the antibody-antigen interaction and revealing the mechanisms underlying the antibody-mediated resistance.

Biography:

Professor Ibiam, Onyekachi. F. Akanu completed his Ph.D 47years ago at University of PortHarcourt, Choba. Rivers State of Nigeria.He has held several responsibilities within and outside the university system. He belongs to several academic bodies, served as a Council member of Botanical Society of Nigeria and Chairman Local Organizing Committee of Conference of BOSON 2008.He is an Editorial Board member of two reputable International Journals, and has published over 40 Journal articles in reputable Journals, about 42 articles in edited works, six books, one mimeograph and two edited books.

Abstract:

Pathogenic fungi have devastated plant, animal and human health in various ways, this is examined from the effects of their toxic secretions in various concentrations in  plants  and plant products, and animals and humans that feed o n these plants and their products. These fungi cause reduction in  plant growth  and productivity in the field , as well as their nutrient values in the field an d storage. These plants and their products are eaten by animals and humans , and the     toxins     secreted  by these fungi cause various    immune-suppressions   , and   genetic   and   mycotic dis  eases   of various sorts. These diseases arise from mycotic secretions suchas ochratoxins, afflatoxins , fumiconisins etc. secreted by storage fungi like   Aspergillus ochraceous  ,  Aspergillus flavus , Fusarium spp etc.These and other  toxins secreted by pathogenic fungi in  the field and storage as well as their damaging effects to plant, animal and human, nutrient and anti-nutrient compositions are reviewed

Biography:

Ananya Prova has completed her MS (By Research) in Plant Pathology from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University in 2012. At present he is serving as Lecturer (Department of Plant Pathology) in EXIM Bank Agricultural University, Bangladesh (EBAUB). Her main research interests focuses on   Molecular plant-microbe interactions  ,  Molecular mechanism  of symptoms expression of  plant pathog ens ; Epidemiology an d management of Ascomycetes phytopathogens, Biological control; etc.

Abstract:

During January 2011, while surveying for different diseases, suspected symptoms of Sclerotinia stem and blossom rot were observed on African marigold in flower garden of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur, Bangladesh. Similarly, plant with light tan to brown blighted stems and pods were observed in the hyacinth bean field. White fluffy mycelium and production of cylindrical black sclerotia on and inside infected plant parts were also observed. Isolations from surface-disinfested flower petals and stems onto potato dextrose agar (PDA) consistently yielded white, fluffy colonies with a ring of sclerotia near the edge of PDA plates typical of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary. Pathogenecity tests were carried out for both isolates according to Koch’s postulate. The optimal temperature for mycelial growth ranged from 15 to 20°C. Optimum pH for radial growth was pH 5.0 to 6.0 in that four carbon sources except starch. Sucrose and Mannitol were found to be the best carbon sources media to support hyphal growth followed by glucose. As well as sucrose was the best medium for sclerotial development yielding highest sclerotial weight.In-vitro evaluation of different microbial antagonists, plant extracts and fungicides were reavealed that, Bavistin, Dithane M-45, Rovral, extract of eucalyptus, turmeric, and neem and Trichoderma harzianum were found to be most effective for significantly inhibition of colony growth of S. sclerotiorum at highest as well as at lowest concentration. Calcium (Ca) amendment in PDA media also significantly retarded the mycelial growth and sclerotial formation of S. sclerotiorum.

Biography:

Ponnuchamy Ponmurugan is currently heading the Department of Biotechnology at K. S. Rangasamy College of  Technology , Tiruchengode, Namakkal District, Tamil Nadu, India. He has published around 85 papers in various national and international journals, 7 patents and author ed 15 text books. He is the recipient of Young Scientist Award offered by Ministry of Science and Techn ology, New Delhi, India. 

Abstract:

Interaction between the        pathogen        Phomopsis theae and       bacterial antagonist       namely Pseudomonas fluorescence ,       fungal antagonist       like      Trichoderma atroviride      and actinomycetes  antagonist namely Streptomyces sannanensis was studied under in vitro condition.      Antibiosis      was performed to analyze the     secondary metabolites     produced which have the    antagonistic    properties for the   pathogenic agents   used in the p  res ent study. The biocontrol agents used were evaluated against C. theae in both solid media and liquid media to determine the suppressing growth rate. The result indicated that   actinomycete antagonist   was found to be effective when compared to the bacterial and  fungal antagonist  respectively in terms of pathogen’s growth suppression and further the mix of consortia served to be most effect ive. The growth inhibition rate recorded was 85.5% in actinomycete     antagonist     treated  plates and 77.3 and 68.8% in bacterial and fungal treated Petri plates; respectively against the pathogen. After laboratory screening, attempts were made to evaluate the efficacy of these biocontrol agents for controlling     red root rot disease     of    tea plants   . Among the thirteen treatments tested, soil drenching of carbendazim was superior in terms of reducing red root rot incidence followed by combination of S. sannanensis and T. atroviride recorded in two consecutive field experiments. In contra st, the maximum    green leaf    yield and   plant growth   was achieved in  soil  appl  ication of these biocontrol agents. However, the performance of this dual combination of biocontrol agents was on par with  systemic fungicide  in terms of disease control. The biometric,  physiological  and biochemical parameters were considerably increased in biologically tr eated plants when compared to untreated control. Moreover, studies  were undertaken to investigate the effect of abiotic and abiotic factors on the survival rate biocontrol agents in soils which revealed all the tested bioagents could survive well in tea soils as well as barks. The present study may be concluded that biocontrol agents could be a possible alternative control measures for the control of P. theae, which in turn reduces the organic chemical residual risk in made tea and it totally improves the tea ecosystem.

Biography:

Ramesh S Bhat is currently working at University of Agricultural Sciences, India. International experience includes various programs, contributions and participation in different countries for diverse fields of study and interests reflect in wide range of publications in various national and international journals

Abstract:

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L) is an important oilseed crop severely affected by foliar diseases like late leaf spot (LLS) and rust. Molecular markers linked to LLS and rust resistance will be of immense use in complimenting conventional breeding for diseases resistance in peanut. Validation of markers linked to LLS and rust resistance is a pre-requisite for their use in Marker Assisted Breeding to develop resistant cultivars. Near isogenic lines (NILs) are the most preferred genetic stocks to validate the markers. The present investigation was aimed to develop NILs from heterogeneous inbred families (HIFs) to validate markers linked to LLS and rust resistance. NILs were developed from HIFs of TAG 24×GPBD 4 and TG 26×GPBD 4. The sets of plants belonging to the same HIF but differing significantly in LLS and/or rust resistance but not for other morphological and productivity traits were regarded as NILs. A total of 30 rust resistant, 34 rust susceptible, 21 LLS resistant and 25 LLS susceptible lines were isolated from TAG 24×GPBD 4 and TG 26×GPBD 4. Largely, rust/LLS resistant NILs had GPBD 4-type allele and susceptible NILs carried either TAG 24 or TG 26-type allele at the three SSR loci (IPAHM103, GM1536 and GM2301) linked to a common genomic region governing LLS and rust resistance. Comparison of the remaining genomic regions between the NILs originating from each of the HIFs using a large number of background markers indicated a considerably high  genome  similarity. These NILs are useful in fine mapping to identify candidate genes governing LLS and/or rust resistance. 

Biography:

Thulasi G. Pillai is working at department of Forest Pathology in Forest Health Division at Kerala Forest Research Institute located in Kerala. International experience includes various programs, contributions and participation in different countries for diverse fields of study and interests reflect in wide range of publications in various national and international journals

Abstract:

True    endophytic fungi    was isolated  from Aerva lanata, a   perennial herb   in the Amaranthaceae  family of the   genus   Aerva, native to Asia, Africa, and Australia for the period 2012-2014. A total of 38 cultu res were obtained from   leaves  ,  stem  and root. Out  of the 38 cult ures we identified the true endophytes associated with the plant. The organism was identified to be Fusarium equiseti by molecular methods. Secondary metabolites were isolated by culturing the organism in potato dextrose broth. Compounds were isolated, purified and characterised using standard methods by   chromatographic   and  spectroscopic  techniques. The compounds were characterised to be terpenoids. The therapeutic potentials of the com pounds were investigated by  cytotoxicity , cell cycle analysis and anticancer activity in hum an cervical cancer cell lines. The results of the study indicates that the compound isolated from F.equiseti possess significant cytotoxic and anticancer activity in human cervical cancer cell lines. Fusarium is a large genus of filamentous fungi belonging to class sordariomycetes which are distributed in  soil  and in association with plants, mostly symptomless. True endophytes have been evolving with the host for millions of  years. This organism can have an important role in the survival and protection of the plant against harsh environment and adverse conditions.

Biography:

Shaikhul Islam has completed his MS (By Research) in   Plant Pathology   from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman  Agricultural  University in 2012. At present he is serving as a Lecturer (Departm ent of  Plant Pathology ) in EXIM Bank Agricultural University, Bangladesh  (EBAUB). His main research interests focuses on    Molecular plant-microbe interactions   ,   Epidemiology   and  management of  Oomycetes phytopathogens , Biological c ontrol; Microbial bio-pestic ides etc.

Abstract:

 Plant growth  promoting rhizobacteria (PG PR) are the rhizosphere bacteria th at may be utilized to augment plant growth and subdue plant diseases. The objectives of this study were to isolate an d characterize PGPR indigenous to cucumber rhizosphere in Bangladesh, and to evaluate their ability to suppress Phytophthora crown rot in cucumber. A total of sixty six isolates were isolated, out of which ten (PPB1, PPB2, PPB3, PPB4, PPB5, PPB8, PPB9, PPB10, PPB11 and PPB12) were chosen based on their in vitro plant growth promoting traits and antagonism of  phytopathogens . Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA sequences identified these isolates as  new strains of Pseudomonas stutzeri, Bacillus subtilis, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and B. amyloliquefaciens. The selected isolates produced high levels (26.78 to 51.28 μg mL−1) of indole-3-acetic acid, while significant acetylene reduction activities (1.79 to 4.9 µmole C2H4 mg-1 protein h-1) were witnessed in eight isolates. PGPR treatment of    cucumber seeds    demonstrated significantly   higher germination  ; enhanced  seedling vigor , growth, and N content in root a nd shoot tiss ue compared to non-treated control plants. All selected isolates successfully colonized the cucumber roots. Moreover, treating cucumber seeds with these isolates significantly inhibited Phytophthora crown rot caused by Phytophthora capsici, and characteristic morphological alterations in Ph . capsici hyphae that grew towards PGPR colonies were detected. Since these PGPR inoculants had revealed numerous traits advantageous to the host plants, they may be applied in the development of novel, eco-friendly, and effective seed treatments as an alternative to chemical fungicides.

Biography:

Huaan Yang is a     Plant Pathologist     by training with BSc in 1982 and MSc in 1985. He has completed his PhD from University of Wester n Australia in 1992. He became a     Molecular Geneticist     following his development of a     D NA fingerprinting technology     called “   MFLP   ” in 2001. His lab has been t he only lab for large-scale application molecular markers on MAS in    plant breeding    on    legume grain    crops   in Australia si nce 2004. Since 2011, his lab has been fully switched i  nto NGS and  genome sequencing  based approaches for pre-breeding in lupin 

Abstract:

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) and whole    genome    sequencing bring us a deluge of   genome   and  genetic variations . In lupin, we are applyin  g NGS and  genome sequencing  tech nologies to help practical plant breeding through four avenues. (1)  NGS as DNA fingerprinting for rapid trait-marker association discovery. Markers closely linked to disease resistance genes we re successfully discovered by NGS-based RAD sequencing, and were applied to marker assisted selection (MAS) in lupin. (2) Genome sequencing for developing functional markers. We completed the draft   genome sequence   of lupin; a diagnostic marker linked to anthracnose disease  resistance gene  was developed by gene annotation and further confirmed by genetic mapping  . (3)      Genome sequencing      to developed cost-effective markers. In the last 15 years, DAFWA has developed over a dozen of gel-based InDel mar kers linked to various     genes     of    agronomic    traits of   interest in lupin. Using the draft lupin genome sequence as templates, all previously developed InDel markers were converted into a cost-effective SNP markers to suit modern SNP  genotyping platform. (4) Whole    genome    re-sequencing for developing diagnostic markers for MA S. We recently resequenced the whole   genomes   of17 lupin lines; several million ma rkers were documented and 207,887 markers were anchored on the lupin   genetic linkage map  . We demonstrated two protocols of using whole- genome resequencing data  for rapid development of diagnostic markers for MAS. In conclusion, the cases in lupin r epresent one  of a few successful cases where NGS and  genomes sequencing  have been used as routine tools for molecular plant. 

Biography:

Juan Pablo Matte has a  Molecular Genetic  Plant Science background. He has studied both, Forest ry Engineering and Biological Science degree in the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. He has completed his PhD in 2013 and Postdoctoral studies in 2015 from The University of Sydney, Australia. Currently he is an Associate Researcher at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, under the PAI project number 82140040 from CONICYT.

Abstract:

The determination of   transcript   levels via  quantitative polymerase chain reaction  (qPCR) is now widespread and ins trumental in research, medicine and a broad range of other areas. The standard method of analysis is delta Ct, that is simple to use, but has a high probability of deviating from the true value. Several alternative approaches that give more consistent results have been presented but they are all complex to use. The C2Pe method we have developed can improve on the delta Ct method by 51%, using the  PCR  curve to estimate the efficiency of each reaction. The main innovations are that the embedded equations use the second phase of the curve to add a quality value to the data to correct the information given by the exponential phase. We have also incorporated revised statistics to improve the robustness of the analysis and constructed a web-based interface to give a straightforward, streamlined qPCR experience. 

Biography:

Kulvinder S Gill has completed his PhD from Kansas State University followed by Postdoctoral studies at the same university for about 3 years. He is the Professor and Director of the Feed the Future Innovation lab, Climate Resilient   Wheat  . He has published more than 100 papers in reputed journals. His research program focuses on understanding and utilizing   chromosome   pairing control in  polyploids , developing alternate dwarfing gene systems for wheat and on usin g  modern tools and technologies for crop improvement .  

Abstract:

To meet the food security demands of growing human population, yield of majority of the      crop plants      needs to be doubled by 2050 while dea ling with the climate change. With the increasing temperature trends and unusual climatic changes,     crops     in future climates will experience frequent temperature extremes causing significant yield losses.  Heat stress is a serious challenge to     wheat     production as every 1° C increase above the optimal temperature results in 4-5% yield loss. Rains fed areas of  the United States are projected to decrease    wheat    production by 20-40% due to climate change.  Thus, developing climate resilient    wheat    is crucial in today’s context. As a public-private partnership, Feed the Future Innovation la  b-Climate Resilient    Wheat    is developing heat tolerant varieties by exploiting natural variation. A short peri od of heat stress during   germination   had serious and long-ter m effect on   plant development   and yield. A ten-day heat s tress at germination reduced  germination percentage , coleoptile length and yield . Sugars availability maybe a reason for the effect on   germina tion   as external application of sucrose showed significant recovery in germination percentage and coleoptile length. Heat stress during vegetative phase significantly affected tiller number, flowering ti me,  pollen fertility ,  pl ant height  and yield. During t he reproductive stage, heat stress adversely affected photosynthesis and increased membrane disintegration due to decreased chlorophyll index and increased ROS and lipid peroxidase activity. The identified h eat tolerant lines will be used to transfer the trait into wheat cultivars by simultaneous detection and utilization of QTLs. Various molecular and physiological studies for the trait are underway and update will be presented.

Biography:

Dr. Wen-Yuan Song has completed his Ph.D. in 1995 from the Institute of Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) and postdoctoral studies from the University of California-Davis (USA). e is current Associate Professor att he University of Florid a (USA). His research mainly focuses on plant response to biotic and abiotic stresses.

Abstract:

Drought stress is a major limitation to   crop production   in the worldwide. We have identified a ubiquitin ligase, Os D T1, that can aid drought survival of rice. The OsDt1  gene  is strongly induced by water deficit. While down-regul ation increases drought sensitivity, overexpression of OsDt1 allows  plants  to confer strong tolerance to water s tress. RNA –sequence assays identified a total of 307 differentially expressed genes  (DEGs ) between the OsDt1 over-expression line OXDt1-70 and the empty -vector control line A36 under norm al conditions. Among them, 24% (50 up-regulated and 24 do n-regulated) DEGs have been reported previously to be associated with water stress or drought regulator s. The OsD 1 protein localizes to both the plasma membrane and nucleus in rice cells.  Protein blot analysis  suggests that the ubiquitin ligase activity of OsDT1 might be active in the nuclear pools. Yeast two- hybrid analysis shows that OsDT1 interacts with a negative regulator of drought response. This results suggest that OsDT1 function as a key regulator of drought survival in rice. 

Biography:

Jamal Saudi is currently a PhD student in   Soil Fertility   & Chemistry from Islamic Azad University (IAU), Khuzesta n Science & Research Branch. He has completed his MSc in  Agriculture Engineering  from Islamic Azad University, Khuzestan Science & Resear ch Branch, in 2011 and he has graduated in  Agrology  from Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz in 1992. He is presently the  Director of Applied Research at Dehkhoda Sugarcane Agro-Industry Co, in Iran. In the course of more than 25 years h e became experienced with many aspects of sugarcane researches an  d cultivations.

Abstract:

Sugarcane is one of the important   plants   in tropical and semi-tropical regions that need plentiful water, these plants cultivates in extended area in Khu zestan province of Iran. In this study,  triple-cropping  of sugarcane cultivar Cp69-1062 on the  ridge was evaluated and compared to  double-cropping  of sugarca ne cultivar Cp69-1062 on the ridge that is current planting region. Results showed that in spite of higher dense plan ting in triple-cropping, in leaf sheath moisture, leaf nitrogen, ridge EC, qualitative situation of cultivar, plant heig  ht, stem diameter and number of shoots, there was not any significant difference between    triple-cropping    with   double-cropping   of sugarcane on the ridge. However, the differenc e between numbers of  stem  per m² in  triple-cro   pping    with  double-cropping  of s ugarcane was significant at 5% level. Also, water use efficiency (WUE) and the mean y ield of sugarcane and sugar in  triple-cropping  were more than double-cropping   of sugarcane. 

Biography:

Neelofar Mirza has completed her PhD in     Molecular Biology     &    Biotechnology    from G. B. Pan t University of   Agriculture   &  Technology ,      India and has since been involved in Teaching and Research in Jamia Millia Islamia University and Indian   Agriculture   Research Institute. She is currently working as a Research Associate on  crop  related NGS technology at National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi, India. She has six  publications to  her credit and has won the USSTC Young Scientist Award in 2013.

Abstract:

Understanding the    molecular mechanisms    underlying the uptake, transp ort, accumulation and of the existing   genetic   variation for storage of minerals in  grains is of utmost importance for development of biofortified   crops  . Finger mil let (Eleusine coracana) has an immense potential as a food security  crop  due to its high nutritional profile and exceptionally high calcium   (Ca) content.   Seeds  , tubers and fruits are generally low in Ca content however, finger millet grains has been reported to contain Ca as high as 376-515 mg/100 g. In order to understand the molecular machinery associated with this high Ca accumulation  and to identify the  candidate genes  and proteins, a com bination of biochemical,  functional genomics  and proteomics approaches were used. Genotypes with contra sting grain Ca content were selected. Members of calcium transporters and sensors i.e., Calmodulin and CaM/Ca dependent kinases were isolated and    transcriptional expression    analysis of these   genes   was carried out in var ious tissues i.e., from  root     tips to different stages of developing spikes amongst the contrasting   genotypes  . Calmodulin (CaM) protein was also assessed in their grains using anti-CaM antibodies. Results correlated the var iable Ca accumulation in different tissues to differential expression of these  genes . Immmuno-detection showed higher CaM in the grains of high Ca accumulating gen  otype. Also, higher transcript levels of CaM and Ca  transporters  was seen in the high Ca accumulating genotype, which might cause greater stimulation of the downstream calciu m transport machinery leading to elevated calcium accumulation. The results provide a model for explaining the mechanism of elevated calcium accumulation  in finger millet and pave way for development of nutraceuticals or designer crops.

Biography:

M. Qasim Shahid has completed his PhD at the age of 29 years from South China Agricultural University, and postdoctoral studies from South China Agricultural University and Istanbul University. He is working as an Associate Professor in South China Agricultural University. He has published more than 25 papers in reputed journals, such as Plant Physiology, Journal of  Experimental Botany , PLOSONE and Crop Science. 

Abstract:

Autotetraploid rice has a great      genetic potential      to increase the     rice production    , but lower pollen    fertility    is a major barrier in   its utilization. Intersubspecific autotetraploid    rice hybrids    showed greater   genetic variation   compared to their  diploid  counterparts. Here, we observed  the  pollen development and its relation with  seed  set in autotetraploid rice. Microgametogenesis in autotetraploid rice was similar to     diploid      rice, but different kinds of abnormalities, including     microspores degeneration   ,     cytoplasm shrinkage    and   abnormal cell walls  , were found in   auto tetraploid rice  . Many different kind s of   chromosomal abnormalities   were found during various development stages of polle n mother cell meiosis such as  chromosome lagging , chromosome straggling, pre-s  eparation of two chromosome set, randomly arranged     chromosome     on the equator, abnormal    spindle   , and incomplete/no separation of     cytokinesis   . We identified  meiosis-related or    meiosis-stage-specific genes    that were down-regulated in   polyploid rice  .  Gene ontology  analysis on the targets of up-r  egulated DEM showed that they were enriched in transport and membrane in pre-meiotic interphase, reproduction in meiosis, and  nucleotide binding  in single microspore stage. Quantitative RT-PCR was used to validate differentially  expressed genes  and microRNAs selected from functional categories based on the ge ne ontology analysis and t he results showed that their expression patterns were consistent with the microarray data and high-throughput sequencing, respectively. These findings provide a foundation for understanding the effect of polyploidy on meiosis-related genes and miRNAs expression patterns during pollen development that lead to low pollen fertility in autotetraploid rice.

Biography:

Dr. Md. Altaf Hossain is a PhD in  Agronomy  from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Bangladesh. He is a public se rvant of Bangladesh. He has published 15 scientific papers in reputed journals in home and abroad. He is acting as Principal Scientific Officer in the Soil Resource Development Institute (SRDI) under the Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of Bangladesh

Abstract:

Generally    nutrient deficiency    of a soil is corrected thr ough application of chemical   fertilizers  . Fertilizers on one hand are  costly and on the other hand it may lead to water pollution by nitrogen and phosphorus from   agricultural land  . Screening of  genotypes  for nutrient stress tolerance could be the best alternative to overcome the situation. The present s  tudy evaluates the  plant growth characters  with emphasis on root growth and nutrient uptake of selected mungbean  genotypes and examines the efficiency of certain growth parameters for predicting their adaptation in sub-optimal nutrient environment. Some   genotypes   (VC 6153B, GK3 & VC 6144A) were found to be high nutrient acquiring  genotypes  and some (PDM 54, IPSA 25 & VO 1443 A-G) were low nutrient acquiring genotypes.  

Biography:

Dr. Rahman has completed his Ph.D. from Kobe University, Japan and postdoctoral studies from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA. He is currently working as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, Japan. He has published more than 25 papers in high impact journals and has been serving as editorial board member of several reputed jornals.

Abstract:

Toxic metals in the soil are a major environmental concern for  agriculture industry . The translocation of these metals from root to the reproductive organs is the major source of food c hain contamination. One of the best methods to reduce the soil contamination is phytoremediation. However, appropriate use of phytoremediation needs the basic mechanistic information of the transport of toxic metals. Hence, identifying the transporters, and understanding the cellular transport mechanism are a prerequisite to engineer plants capable of phytoremediation. This talk will be focused on transport mechanisms of two metals, arsenic and cesium. Arsenic exists in two natural forms; arsenate and arsenite. Arsenate is the predominant form in the soil and transported by phosphate transport carrier system. Once arsenate gets inside the plant, it is readily converted to more toxic form arsenite by arsenate reductase. The uptake of arsenite is regulated by  aquaglycero proteins  or aquaporins. However, the efflux of arsenite remains obscure. Using    molecular    and   cellular   approaches, w e found that  intracellular arsenite  and auxin re  spon  ses are connected, and one of the auxin efflux carriers also functions as an arsenite efflux carrier. I will also introduce our recent work on cesium transporters, and provide evidence that cesium transport is regulated by carriers that are not linked to potassium transport system. 

Biography:

Azarnoosh Jafari has completed Ph.D in 2004 from Research and Sciences of Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University. She is the director of above project Design. She has published more than 50 papers in English and Persian.

Abstract:

In the present research, a    phylogenetic    study of the Iranian species of Bellevalia, Leopoldia, Muscari and Pseudomuscari (tribe Hyacintheae, As paragaceae) was performed based on the    plastid    regions rbcL, matK, trnL intron and tr nL-F spacer. The four sections of    genus    Bellevalia i.e.   Nutans  ,  Patens , Conica and Oxy donta a re found  in Iran. Traditionally, flower colour and shape, the ratio of leaf to scape length were used to delimit sections, subsections and species, while an overlap in these  features was sometime observed and flower colour and shape change in fresh and dried specimen. Regarding Muscari, Davis and Stuart believed that       Pseudomuscari       and      Leopoldia      were sub genera of this     genus     while Garbari  and Greuter treated them as     distinct genera    . These three genera are distinguished based on flower co lour, shape an d throat contraction.     Leopoldia     is similar to    Bellevalia    and   Muscari   is similar to   Pseudo  muscari  . So, in order to determine the exact circumscription of sectio ns and  genera , a  phy logenetic analysis  based on four plastid DNA regions was perfo rmed. For this 91 specimens including Hyacinth us as outgroup taxon were evaluated. The results showed that Bellevalia is a monophyletic clade, but that its sections are not. Also, some    Leopoldia   species  are placed in the Muscari clade. Moreover the two possible positions of  Muscari and Leopoldia shown here can be explaned by:  hybridization  between these two genera. Thus, based on these resul  ts, Leopoldia could be considered as an infrageneric rank of Muscari. Since, no decisive point was observed in genera and sections circumscription, it is recommended that this molecular analysis is expanded to investigate fur ther the relationships among species of Hyacintheae in Iran.

Biography:

Deepak Sharma has completed his Master in Biotechnology at the age of 25 years from Rajasthan University, with Silver Jubilee Scholarship of Government of India 2008-2010 and pursuing doctoral studies from Kathmandu University School of Science currently 2014-2017. He is also Research Assistant of Seoul National University’s funded project of KOIKA AP1in supervision of Professor Dr. Janardan Lamichanne at Kathmandu University. For academic and other qualification please find the attached file here within.

Abstract:

Ten different medicinally important      plants      collected from Kh aptad National Park were found to be high     antimicrobial    ,    cytotoxic    and    high antioxidant propertie  s   . Among the samples    P.edgeworthii    were found to exhibit greatest   antimicrobial   properties with ZOI-10 mm at 200mg /ml extract  concentration against S.aureus. which is in accordance of their traditional uses. A.spectabilis were found with highest   cytotoxic   property with LC50 value 6.14 ppm, among  B.diffusa , T.foliolosum and E.strobilifera 13.59 ppm,64.50 ppm,223.46 ppm  respectively. The high antioxidant properties observed in the pl ants E.strobilifera (5.46 ug/ml) using DPPH bioassay method which indicate their anticancer properties. A series of research is thought to be continued for the future which can lead for the development of drugs.

Biography:

Mahendar Thudi obtained his PhD in    Plant Sciences    from University of Hyderabad, India . Seminal contribution of Mahendar Thudi includes   genome sequences   of chickpea,  molecular breeding  products in chick  pea,  genetic resources  like TILLING populations (in chickpea  and pearl millet) and genomic resources like SSR ma rkers, genetic maps (in chickpea and pearl millet) and  high-throughput  DNA fingerprinting , genome diversity analysis, marker-trait ass ociations and chickpea physical map. His research articles (>40) are published in high-impact factor journals including, Nature Biotechnology (1), Scientific Reports (1), PLoS ONE (3), Theoretical and Applied Genetics (1), etc. that are widely read and cited.

Abstract:

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the most important annual pulse   crops   cultivated by resource poor farmers across the gl obe. Besides being the rich source of human dietary proteins, it improves the  soil  heath through symbiotic nitrogen fixation. Globally it is cultivated on over   13.2 Mha with an annual production of 13.1 million tons and productivity is less than 1 ton per ha much less than estimated potential of 6 t/ha under optimum growing conditions. In order to understand the impact of breeding on genetic diversit y and gain insights into temporal trends in diversity in chickpea, a set of 100 chickpea varieties released in 14 countries between 1948 and 2012 were re-sequenced. For analysis, the re-sequencing data for 29 varieties available from an earlier study was combined and     genome     analysis was conducted for 129    genotypes   . Linkage disequilibri um decay was higher in landraces than in   breeding   lines. Re-sequencing of a large number o f varieties has provided opportunities to inspect the   genetic   and  genomic  changes reflecting the history of     breeding , which we cons ider as breeding signatu res and the selected loci may provide targets for crop improvement. In addition, the analysis provided insights  into population structure, genetic diversity, gene loss, domestication and selection sweeps in this cr op that is important for global food security in developing countries. 

Biography:

Xia Li received her Ph.D. from Purdue University in the United States, and then joined in the Vector Tobacco Inc. as a research scientist from 2001 to 2004. In 2004, she was selected as one of the “One hundred talents” of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and became a Principal Investigator in the Institute of  Genetics  and Developmental Biology, CAS. She has moved to Huazhong Agricultural University as professor since September, 2015. She has published more than 50 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of repute. 

Abstract:

The        stem cell        niche in the root meris tem maintains       pluripotent stem cells       to ensure a  constant supply of cells for       root growth      . Despite extensive progress, the      molecular mechanisms      through which root     stem cell     fa   tes and     stem cell     niche activity are determined remain lar gely unknown. In    Arabidopsis    thaliana, the Pl eiotropic Regulatory Locus 1 (PRL1) encodes a WD40-repeat protein subunit  of the spliceosome-activating Nineteen complex (NTC) that plays a role in multiple stress, hormone and    developmental signaling pathways   . In this study, we show that   PRL1   is involved in the control of  root meristem  size and root stem cell     niche activity. PRL1 is strongly expressed in the root meristem and its loss of function mutation results in disorganization of the quiescent center (QC),  premature stem cell  differentiation,  aberrant cell division , a nd reduced root meristem size. O ur genetic studies indicate that PRL1 is required for confined expression of the homeodomain  tran scription  factor WOX5 in the QC and acts upstream of the transcription factor PLETHORA (PLT) in mo dulating stem cell niche ac tivity and root meristem size. These findings define a role for PRL1 as an important determinant of PLT signaling that modulates maintenance of the stem c ell niche and root meristem size.

Biography:

Rakhi Chaturvedi is the Professor at  Biosciences  and Bioengineering (BSBE) Department, IIT Guwahati, Guwahati. She  obtained her Bachelor and Master degrees from University of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. Subsequently, she received M.Phil.and Ph.D. degrees from University of Delhi, Delhi, India, in 1996 and 2001, respectively. After her post-doctoral studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, Dr Chaturvedi joined IIT Guwahati in the year 2004 as Assistant Professor in the Department of BSBE. Dr Chaturvedi held important Academic and Administrative positions. She served as Vice-Chairperson GATE-JAM 2013, Chairperson GATE-JAM 2014, Chairperson GATE-2015 and Organizing Chairperson JAM-2015 examinations. Currently, she is the Associate Dean of Alumni Affairs and External Relations at IIT Guwahati.

Abstract:

      Tea       is  a      perennial     , e vergreen tree of the family Theaceae. It is most consumable non-alcoholic  caffeine containing      beverage      in the world due to  its pleasant taste, attractive aroma and its medicinal property. Tea contains large amount of      Catechins      (a group of very active     flavonoids    ) which have    anticancer   ,   antidiabetic  ,  antiviral ,  antimala   rial , hepatoprotective, ne uroprotective and c ardio  protective effects. Present study aims to study batch kinetics of   androgenic haploid cell   lines established from  pollen grains  in anther cultures of TV21 cultivar of tea. The haploid status  of these cell  lines were confirmed by flow cytometry. Cell suspension cultures were raised from fresh friable and high proliferating calli established on semi-solid medium. Dynamic changes of parameters, such as pH, fresh and dry cell concentrations, consumption of major nutrients, carbon source and agitation speeds, were studied to understand the culture characteristics. Maximum viable cultures were obtained at a rotation speed of 120 rpm. Identification and quantification of    Caffeine   , (+)-Catechine, (-)-Epicatechin and (-)-Epigallocatechin gallate were performed by HPLC which were further confirmed through Mass spectrometric data analysis. Maximum yield of 2.7%   Caffeine  , 0.26 % (+)- Catechin , 0.92% (-)-Epicatechin, and 10.36% (-)-Epig allocatechin gallate per gram dry weight was obtained from cells in suspension culture at 24th day. Compare to this, leaves from parent plant prod uced 3.14% Caffeine, 0.48 % (+)-Catechin, 1.3% (-)-Epicatechin, and 11.3% (-)-Epigallocatechin gallate per gram dry weight which was marginally higher. The optimized conditions and parameters of the pr esent study would be useful for further scale-up process by using suitable elicitors/precursors.

Biography:

Lifang Wu has obtained her PhD from Hefei Institutes of   Physical Science  , Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, China and her Postdoctoral studies from National University of Singapore. Sh e has published more than 50 papers in reputed journals such as nature,  Plant Physiology  , Genes and Development and so on. She is globally recognized as an exp  ert on the molecular breeding of woody bioenergy plant species. 

Abstract:

Sapium sebiferum Roxb., a monoecious deciduous      tree      of the     Euphorbiaceae family    , is an economically important multipurpose     woody p lant     species  in    tropical    and     subtropical    regions. Considering the hug e potential of this species for ornamental, biomass and    biodiesel-producing   , it is essential for   S. sebiferum   to establish high efficient  plant tissue culture  procedures which can be u  sed for large-scale propagation and genetic improvement. We have established  high efficient plant regeneration  systems through different pathways by using different parts of S. sebiferum as explants. And based on those plant regeneration systems, we have established a high efficient genetic transformation system. Our results provide critical information  for the propagation and the genetic improvement of S. sebiferum.

Biography:

Jingjuan has completed her PhD from Murdoch University in 2008 and followed by postdoctoral studies. She has 25 year work experience in wheat and has published 16 papers in reputed journals and the recent seven first authored papers and one co-authored paper are relevant to water soluble carbohydrate remobilization in wheat.

Abstract:

 Stem water soluble carbohydrate  (WSC, mainly fructan), as a main storage carbon source before  anthesis , can contribute up to 57% of wheat grain yield under terminal drought stress. However, the   remobilization  of stem WSC  varies depending on the growth stages, conditions and genotypes. Therefor e, it is worthwhile to further investigate the a ttributes on high  remobilization efficiency of stem WSC . In recent study, two wheat varieties: Westonia, Kauz and their derived 20    double haploid    (DH) lines with large genetic variations were used in field drought experiments. The results clearly showed that the    genetic variation    is involved in stem WSC   remobilization   to grain under drought; a key  enzyme  (1-FEH w3) degrades 2-1 linkage fructan  an d contributes the stem WSC  remobilization ; a marker generated with in auxin response element (AuxRE) in the promoter region of 1- FEH w3 correlates with high stem f ructan remobilization capacity and the 1-FEH w3 Westonia allele is associated with high grain weight under drought. In the stem segment analysis, fructan remobilization occurred earlie r in lower parts of the  stem  and sheath under drought, which was associated with an earlier increase of grain weight and thousand grain weig ht in earlier mature lines. Root WSC and fructan were one t hird of the levels in stems. The significant correlation between root fructan levels and grain assimilation indicate that under terminal drought, root WSC represents a redistributed carbon source for grain filling rather than  deep rooting. Our results further confirmed that β-(2-6) linkage predominate in wheat, which leads the future study.

Biography:

Dr Rebecca Zwart completed her PhD from University of Queensland, Australia on the genetics of root-lesion nematode resistance in wheat. She is Senior Research Fellow (Crop Nematology) at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. She has held postdoctoral positions investigating the genetics and nature of inheritance of genes conferring host resistance to wheat diseases in Australia, Belgium and India.

Abstract:

     Root-lesion nematodes (RLN)      are one  of the most widespread and     devastating plant        parasitic nematodes    specie  s globally. In Australia, RLN species Pratylenchus thornei and P. neglectus are particularly importa nt    biotic    constr aints to   wheat production  . The mos t effic ient and effective strategy for improving on-farm   RLN   management relies on providing  wheat growers  with   cultivars with better levels of resistance to RLN to ensure high yields and reduce the build-up of  nematode populations  to invade subsequent crops. Curren  t research efforts in Australia are focused on the genetic characterization and introgression of superior sources of resistance into commercial wheat cultivars. Studies on the inheritance of P. thornei resistance in     wheat     have revealed    polygenetic    and   additive gene   action. Superior resistan ce has been identified from a wide range of backgrounds, including landrace and synthetic hexaploid wh eats (ABD genomes), and   wild diploid   (D and A genomes) and  tetraploid  (AB genomes) genome donors. Effectiv e sources of dual resistance to P. thornei and P. neglectus have been identified in  synthetic hexaploid  wheat. A single gene conferring resistance to P. neglectus, Rlnn1, has been mapped to chromosome 7AL. QTL analysis in sever al bi-parental mapping populations has identified major QTL for P. thornei resistance on  chromosomes  2BS, 6DS and 7BL , which have been verified in sources of resistance from diverse backgrounds. Genotyping-by-sequencing has provided closely linked flanking markers that are now avail able to Australian breeders through the Australian Wheat and Barley Program to implement marker-assisted selection. Further fine mapping using large segregating populations will allow map-based cloning approaches to identify candidate genes underlying these QTL for RLN resistance. 

Biography:

Parminder Virk is the Head of  Crop Development   and he is responsible for the development of biofortified staple food crops. He spent most of his career at the Internati onal Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los Banos, as lead Rice Breeder for productive environments, biofortified rice and transgenic breeding. Together with his team he developed 27 rice varieties f or major rice growing countries. He has extensive experience in international collaboration with public and private sectors in germplasm development, distribution/testing, research, training, technical assistance and consulting and technology transfer.

Abstract:

Micronutrient malnutrition affects more than half of the world population.    Biofortification   , the delivery of   micronutrients   via micronutrient dense  crops , offers a cost effective and su stainable approach. HarvestPl us and its  partners breed  and disseminate new, more  nutritious varieties of staple food crops that provide higher amou nts of pro vitamin A, iron or zinc, the three micronutrients identified by the World Health Organization as most lacking in diets globally. Crop improvement activities focus on e xploring the available natural genetic variation. To date, HarvestPlus has established productive research networks that link national research programs in target regions of the developing world with advanced    agriculture    and nutrition research institutes around the globe with more than 100   biofortified crop   varieties released.  To accelerate breeding process state of art genomic approaches namely genetic mapping and  genome  wide association studies for the identification of candidate genes for mineral uptake and   homeostasis  a  nd functional markers associated with favorable alleles for enhanced micronutrients. Recently, with the advent of high throughput cost effective  molecular genotyping , genomic selection models are being explored to enhance breeding efficiency.  Conventional breeding  alone is not always an option in particular where there is limited genetic  variability or the target trait is altogether absent in the edible part (e.g. iron and pro vitamin A in  rice endosperm ). Under these circumstances transgenic approaches are in development. Their practical application, however, also demands visionary changes in regulatory poli cies and a broader consumer acceptance.

Biography:

Dr.He has completed his PhD from China Agriculture University in 2007, then she joined the Tong Fellow at Center for Molecular Agrobiology, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her interest focuses on the genetic improvement of nitrogen use efficiency of wheat. She has published their research results in Plant J, Plant Physiol, New Phytol,etc.

Abstract:

Nitrate is a major nitrogen resource for cereal crops, thus understanding nitrate signaling in cereal crops is valuable for engineering crops with improved nitrogen use efficiency. Although several regulators have been identified in nitrate sensing and signaling in Arabidopsis, the equivalent information in cereals is missing. Here, we isolated a nitrate inducible and cereal specific NAC transcription factor TaNAC2-5A from wheat (Triticum aestivum). CHIP-SEQ (Chromatin Immunoprecipitation based Sequencing) dates indicated that TaNAC2-5A could bind to the genes encoding nitrate transporter and glutamine synthetase and the genes involving auxin signaling pathway. And a RING Zinc-finger protein that was screened by yeast two-hybrid may regulate the response of TaNAC2-5A to nitrate. Overexpression of TaNAC2-5A in wheat enhanced root growth and nitrate influx rate and hence increase root ability to acquire nitrogen. Further, we found that TaNAC2-5A over-expressing transgenic wheat lines had higher grain yield and higher nitrogen accumulation in aerial parts and allocated more nitrogen in grains in a field experiment. These results suggest that TaNAC2-5A is involved in nitrate signaling and show that it is an exciting gene resource for breeding crops with more efficient use of fertilizer.

Biography:

Yong Wang obtained his Ph.D degree from University of Lausanne in Switzerland in 2006 and did postdoctoral studies from the University of California, San Diego in USA during 2006.1-2010.11. Since Nov. 2010, he has been working as a professor at Shandong Agricultural University in China. He has published many papers in reputed journals including “the Plant Cell”, “Plant Physiology” etc.

Abstract:

We identified a novel gene named NITRATE REGULATORY GENE 2 (NRG2) by using forward genetics, which mediates nitrate signaling in Arabidopsis. nrg2 mutants showed inhibited induction of nitrate-responsive genes after nitrate treatment by an ammonium-independent mechanism. The nitrate content in roots was significantly lower in the mutants than in WT, which may have resulted from reduced expression of NRT1.1 and up-regulation of NRT1.8. Genetic and molecular data suggest that NRG2 functions upstream of NRT1.1 in nitrate signaling. Furthermore, NRG2 directly interacts with NLP7 in the nucleus, but does not affect the nuclear retention of NLP7 in the presence of nitrate. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that genes involved in four nitrogen-related clusters were differentially expressed in the nrg2 mutants. A nitrogen -compound-transport cluster was regulated by both NRG2 and NRT1.1, while no nitrogen-related clusters showed regulation by both NRG2 and NLP7. Thus, NRG2 plays a key role in nitrate regulation in part through modulating NRT1.1 expression and may function with NLP7 via their physical interaction. NRG2 family consists of 16 members and each protein contains two uncharacterized functional domains: DUF630 and DUF632. We further investigated the role of NRG2.10 and NRG2.15 in regulating nitrate signaling in Arabidopsis. The results showed that the induction of nitrate-responsive genes after nitrate treatments and the nitrate accumulation in seedlings were affected in both nrg2.10 and nrg2.15 mutants. These findings demonstrate that NRG2 family members play important roles in nitrate signaling.

Biography:

Robert Saxon Brueggeman has completed his PhD in 2009 from Washington State University and Postdoctoral studies also from Washington State University Department of Crop and Soil Science. He is currently an Associate Professor at North Dakota State University as the Barley Pathologist/Molecular Geneticist. He has published more than 32 papers in reputed journals covering the topics of the cloning and characterization of barley disease resistance genes and fungal effectors.

Abstract:

The barley rpg4/Rpg5 locus confers resistance against wheat stem rust caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt) including race TTKSK (A.K.A. Ug99). The 70 kb region harbors two NLR R-genes, Rpg5 and HvRga1 that are required together for resistance. HvRga1 and Rpg5 contain typical NLR resistance-protein structure; however, Rpg5 has an additional C-terminal serine threonine protein kinase (STPK) domain. The transcription factor, HvVOZ1 was identified by yeast-two-hybrid of a library constructed from RNA of the rpg4/Rpg5+ line Q21861; 48 hours post inoculation, utilizing the Rpg5-STPK domain as bait. We hypothesize that the Rpg5-STPK acts as an integrated decoy that HvVOZ1 binds to negatively regulate defense activation or binds after activation as part of a signaling complex. The second NLR, HvRga1, may guard theHvVOZ1-Rpg5 interaction or surveil the Rpg5-STPK domain for Pgtrpg4/Rpg5-Avr (r45-Avr) effector manipulation. Thus, HvRga1 is possibly the guard that detects manipulation of the Rpg5 STPK or possibly HvVOZ1 by the r45-Avr effector eliciting a strong effector triggered immunity defense response. The r45-Avr needs to be identified to thoroughly investigate these mechanisms and test our hypothesis. To accomplish this a panel of 37 wheat stem rust isolates collected in North Dakota, many with differential race typing on the wheat differentials and differential reactions on rpg4/Rpg5 and Rpg1 in barley were genotyped using restriction site associated DNA-genotyping-by-sequencing (RAD-GBS). This RAD-GBS produced 4,919 informative SNPs and this initial genotyping was used to select 24 diverse isolates (16 avrRpg4/rpg5 and 8 Avrrpg4/Rpg5+) that were used to conduct in planta RNA-seq analysis during Pgt colonization 5 days post inoculation on the susceptible barley cultivar Harrington. The RNA-seq data was utilized to identify ~181,000 variant calls (SNPs and indels) within these Puccinia graminis transcriptomes during the infection process. The robust genotyping and phenotyping on these diverse differential isolates should allow us to identify candidate r45-Avr genes utilizing association mapping.

Biography:

Marie Umber has completed her PhD from Strasbourg University in France and Postdoctoral studies in Guadeloupe (French West Indies), working on endogenous viral sequences in yam and banana. Since 2013, she is the person in charge of the viral sanitation of the yam collection from the Biological Resources Centre for Tropical Plants (CRB-PT) in the French National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA).

Abstract:

The French West Indies Biological Resources Centre for Tropical Plants (CRB-PT) maintains several germplasm collections of tropical crops and wild relatives, including a collection of more than 450 yam accessions (Dioscorea spp). The purpose of this Centre is to conserve and distribute virus-free germplasm to end users. Yam is the third most important staple food crops in French Caribbean islands, after banana and sugarcane. Cultivation of this crop is almost exclusively by vegetative propagation, which presents challenges in the sharing and exchange of plant material because of the vertical transmission of viruses. To this aim, virus populations infecting conserved accessions are characterized and appropriate detection tools are created or optimized, then implemented for the sanitation of infected germplasm. Several Badnavirus species have been reported in yams. Recently, endogenous Dioscorea badnaviral sequences (eDBVs) were described in the genome of African yams of the D. cayenensis subsp., rotundata complex. The genome of the other two main cultivated yam species, D. alata and D. trifida has also been investigated by the analysis of BAC libraries. The major constraint of these sequences is to interfere with Badnavirus PCR-based detection methods and prevent from the accurate diagnostic of Badnavirus in yams. Moreover the occurrence of endogenous sequences from extant Badnavirus species in yams should suggest that some eDBVs could be infectious as some eBSV (endogenous Banana streak virus) sequences in banana. Conversely, molecular evidence supporting the role of these EVEs (endogenous viral elements) in antiviral defense will also be presented.

Biography:

Julian Chen has completed her PhD at Graduate School & Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IPP-CAAS). She is a Group Leader of Wheat Insect Pest Research Group, IPP-CAAS. She has published more than 110 papers in reputed peer-review journals.

Abstract:

Olfaction is the essential sense of insect’s feeding and mating. It achieves semiochemical and pheromone perception through olfactory pathway which coupled components by expressing series olfactory genes, distributing in antenna. transcriptome of antenna is a good way to understand the complicated olfactory system components. Analysis of chemical sensing system is a crucial basic work for studying the olfactory physiology of aphids and developing biological control technologies. In this study, we sequenced winged and wingless antennae transcriptome of Sitobion avenae (Fabricius), one of the most serious pests of cereals using IlluminaHiSeqTM2500/MiseqTM technology and Trinity assembly. A total of 133,331 unigenes were obtained with an average length of 594 bp. To annotate the transcripts, we searched against the Nr, Nt, Pfam, KOG/COG, Swiss-prot, KEGG and GO databases and 100,345 unigenes (75.26%) were annotated in at least one database. There were 1,517genes (1,107 up-regulated and 410 down-regulated genes) differentially expressed between wingless and winged antennae, respectively. Nine of them are associated with odour binding pathway. 13 OBPs, 5 CSPs genes were identified from S. avenae. All of these transcripts have the typical structural features of insect (six conserved cysteines for OBPs and 4 for CSPs). Through multiple comparisons phylogenetic tree constructed of OBPs across several aphids, we can see that there is a high similarity between orthologs within a range of aphid species. Besides, 48 Ors (odorant receptors) were annotated as well and further studies are in progress.

Biography:

Dr. Juliana Janet Martin-Puzon is currently an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Biology, College of Science, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City. She heads the Plant Physiology Laboratory of this university. She took both her MS in Botany and PhD in Biology degrees (major in Plant Physiology) in University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City; and, her BS degree in Biology major in Microbiology at University of the Philippines Los Baños. Dr. Puzon completed a research fellowship under the University of the Philippines - Natural Sciences Research Institute -Department of Agriculture – Bureau of Agricultural Research (UP-NSRI/DA-BAR) Post-Doctoral and Senior Scientist Research Fellowship Program. Her research project is entitled “Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Properties of Glinus oppositifolius (L.) Aug. DC, a Promising Source of Bioactive Metabolites.” She has published numerous scientific papers in international peer-reviewed journals dealing on her research interests, namely, plant and cell physiology, plant stress physiology, phytoremediaion, secondary metabolism (natural products and their bioactivities) and controls of plant growth and development. Notably, she has presented her works through platform and poster presentations in various conferences, both internationally and locally. She has given local seminar-workshops emphasizing on research methods in physiology, particularly the assessment of heavy metal stress tolerance in plants, as well as the bioactive properties of certain Philippine medicinal plants. She also serves as a referee of papers dealing with her areas of expertise submitted for publication in scientific journals

Abstract:

This study aimed to determine the presence of bioactive phytochemical constituents and evaluate the in vitro antibacterial activities of Glinus oppositifolius or carpet weed, a plant valued for its use in traditional medicine and as a vegetable. The leaves, stems and roots were extracted using chloroform, ethanol and methanol. Phytochemical screening revealed that the entire G. oppositifolius plant, i.e., roots, stems and leaves, is a rich source of alkaloids, flavonoids, glycosides, saponins, sterols, tannins and triterpenes. The antibacterial activity of the leaf and stem extracts were evaluated through disc diffusion, minimum inhibitory concentration and bactericidal concentration assays against methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin resistant Enterococcus (VRE), extended spectrum β-lactamase producing (ESβL+), carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and metallo-β-lactamase producing (MβL+) Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii. The leaf extracts revealed antibacterial activities, inhibiting the growth of non resistant and multidrug resistant (MDR) strains of the Gram negative bacteria E. coli, P. aeruginosa and A. baumanii. In conclusion, the various biological activities of G. oppositifolius, including its antibacterial activity, are due to the presence of diverse bioactive secondary metabolites. The presence of phytochemical compounds in G. oppositifolius is scientific evidence on its use for treatment of many ailments. Thus, the results demonstrate the great potential of the plant as a new, alternative source of antimicrobials and other components with therapeutic value.

Biography:

Branka Javornik is working at Genetics & Biotechnology as Head of Biotechnology Studies in Biotechnical Faculty at University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. International experience includes various programs, contributions and participation in different countries for diverse fields of study and interests reflect in wide range of publications in various national and international journals

Abstract:

Verticillium wilt caused by soil borne vascular tissue infecting species of the Verticillium genus is a devastating disease in many crops. Host resistance and phytosanitary measures are the best options for controlling the disease so elucidation of plant wilt resistance can undoubtedly enhance resistance breeding. We study Verticillium wilt in hop caused by a highly virulent strain of V. nonalfalfae, which has recently become a serious threat to hop production in Europe. The first QTL for hop resistance against Verticillium wilt has been identified, opening up possibilities for investigation of the genetic basis of hop resistance source, as well as markers development and their exploitation in MAS resistant breeding. Transcriptomics and proteomics were employed in a time course experiment comparing infected and control plants of resistant and susceptible hop cultivars to characterize hop-Verticillium interactions. The expression patterns of most studied genes and the decline of fungal biomass in the infected resistant cultivar suggest that the defense response in the resistant cultivar is strong enough at 20 dpi to restrict further fungus colonization. The results so far have shown strong expression of genes encoding PR proteins in both interactions, strong up regulation of genes implicated in ubiquitination and vesicle trafficking in the incompatible interaction and their down regulation in susceptible plants. Additionally, the identification and high abundance of two mannose/glucose specific lectin isoforms and dehydrins present only in the roots of the resistant cultivar implies a putative function of these proteins in hop resistance against V. nonalfalfae.

Biography:

Grace Chen has obtained her PhD from University of Wisconsin at Madison and her Postdoctoral studies from University of California, Plant Gene Expression Center. She has published more than 44 papers in reputed journals and she is globally recognized as an expert on oilseed biotechnology.

Abstract:

Lesquerella, a potential new industrial oilseed crop is valued for its unusual hydroxy fatty acid (20:1 OH) which can be used as raw materials for numerous industrial products, such as lubricants, plasticizers and surfactants. As a step towards genetic engineering of Lesquerella, we explored a Lesquerella seed transcriptome that generated 651 mega bases of raw sequences, 59,914 transcripts and 26,995 unique genes. These unique genes were found to represent all known seed expressed genes. Based on Arabidopsis acyl-lipid metabolism database, we identified 615 Lesquerella genes for all known pathways in acyl-lipid metabolism. Using quantitative real-time PCR assays, we characterized the expression profiles of 15 key genes involved in oil biosynthesis in various tissues of Lesquerella. Our results provide critical information for future design of genetic engineering experiments to control HFA production in plants.

Biography:

Biologist, with a Ph.D. in Plant Genetics at the University of Vienna, Austria and post-doctorate in the area of Plant Molecular Biology, at the University of Frankfurt. Actually working as Full Professor in the Department of Genetics, Federal University of Pernambuco, as head of the Laboratory of Plant Genetics Biotechnology. Dr. Benko-Iseppon presents experience in the field of plant genetics, with emphasis on plant molecular biology, genomics, transcriptomics, and bioinformatics, as well as in cytogenetics, genetic mapping in plants and bioprospection of therapeutic molecules from plants.

Abstract:

The comprehension of the  plant r esponse to pathogen attack is essential for the development of strategies to improve resistance and diminish yield losses. Besides the desired resistance, the crosstalk between  plan t reaction to  biotic  and  abiotic stre sses is also a central question, especially considering the predicted global warming scenario. In this regard, the use of strategies involving omics analysis and bioinformatics can bring interesting evidence, useful for molecular breeding,  crop  selection and generation of genetically modified plants. Our group has been studying ke y gene fa milies associated to  plant defense in different pl ant groups includin g crops (e.g . cowpea, soybean, castor bean, grape, etc.) and medicinal plants with a focus on the families Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, and Curcubitaceae, using transcriptomics (RNA-Seq, RT-qPCR, transgenesis) and bioinformatics approaches. Gene families studied include R (Resistance), PR (Pathogen Related), TF (Transcription Factors) and Kinases, evaluated under biotic (pathogen inoculation) and abiotic (water deficit and salinity) stresses. Besides the expression profiling, aspects of gene and protein structure and genomic evolution have been analyzed. In the case of resistant or tolerant plants (depending on the stress type), a constitutive or earlier induction of given genes has been recognized, indicating that the early stress perception and the precocious induction of other stress-associated genes is a key defense mechanism. Particularly for some TF, PR, and Kinase genes, a dual role in response to biotic and abiotic stresses has also been recognized.

Biography:

Shashi Kumar is a Team Leader at ICGEB in New Delhi, India. He has graduated in Genetics from the University of Delhi, 1998, Postdoctoral research at University of Virginia, University of Central Florida, University of California Berkeley and Scientist at Yulex Inc., USA and USDA, Albany, USA. He has participated in establishing the “Centre for Advanced Bio-Energy Research” supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. His area of interests include metabolic engineering for drug biosynthesis, metabolic engineering of rubber plant for hypoallergenic latex, http://plantgenomics.conferenceseries.com/, development of sustainable algal biofuel technology and genetic engineering of marine algae for higher lipid and biomass.

Abstract:

The rapid progression of malarial illness and drug-resistant parasites threatens nearly half the global population. Artemisinin, a drug native to Artemisia annua, is highly effective against drug-resistant malarial parasites. Insufficient supply of artemisinin and lack of an anti-malarial vaccine requires development of new alternative sources of production. Furthermore, prohibitively expensive purification process underscores the need for alternative ways of drug delivery. In this study, the chloroplast genome of tobacco was engineered to express the yeast mevalonate (MEV) biosynthetic pathway. The dihydroartemisinic acid (DHAA) biosynthetic pathway was expressed in the same plant via the nuclear genome transformation. Double transgenic (DT) lines with confirmed transgene integration/expression showed 2-3 folds increase in IPP. A high level of an intermediate volatile metabolite amorphadiene (committed precursor to artemisinin) targeted to mitochondria was detected by GC-MS. Efficient conversion of DHAA to artemisinin by photo-oxidation was confirmed by LC-MS/MS analysis. The DT lines grew normally, flowered and set seeds like untransformed plants. The partially purified artemisinin extracts from DT leaves inhibited in vitro growth progression of red blood cells (RBCs) infected with the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Most importantly, oral feeding of dried plant cells expressing artemisinin reduced the parasitemia levels in challenged mice, facilitating low cost production and delivery of this important life-saving drug. Thus, metabolic engineering utilizing different cellular compartments in plant cells and a synergistic drug delivery approach utilizing bioencapsulation is a novel concept that could be employed in a number of other metabolite based drug studies.

Biography:

Ayyanagouda Patil has completed his Masters in Genetics and Plant breeding from University of Agricultural Sciences, India and later pursued his Doctoral degree in the department of Plant Biotechnology. He has worked extensively on genomics & transcriptomics plant improvement for his doctoral studies. He has later joined the University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur as an Assistant Professor of Biotechnology in the year 2011. He was nominated as Head of the newly opened department of Molecular Biology and Agricultural Biotechnology in University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur on 2014 and continuing till date. He is guiding three postdoctoral students and Advisory Member for five doctoral students. He has published more than 25 research papers and abstracts.

Abstract:

Heat stress is a one of the major abiotic stresses which has profound impact on pollen viability and silk receptivity intern affect maize yields. Heat stable lines can be identified based on pollen viability and silk receptivity under high temperature condition. The present study is first of its kind to conduct genome wide association study for identification of genomic loci associated with pollen viability and silk receptivity under heat stress in tropical maize using genotyping by sequence data (GBS) with 239,594 SNP markers (MAF≥0.05) used for marker trait association in a panel of maize inbred lines. The pollen viability and silk receptivity of the inbred lines was assessed based on seed set percent. Association analysis was conducted using a mixed linear model involving both population structure and kinship to control false positives. The average physical distance between pairs of markers was 27.7 kb with mean LD estimation (r2) of 0.36 across genome and LD decay of 6.34 kb at r2=0.2. Out of 239,594 SNPs, 44 SNPs were significantly (P≤0.0001) associated with pollen viability and 69 SNPs were significantly associated with silk receptivity under heat stress. Candidate gene based analysis was used to predict the putative function of the associated genes. Of the many SNP makers, the gene associated with SNP marker (S6_156252525) is homologue of rice Osg1 gene which code for β-1,3-glucanases associated with pollen fertility. The SNP (S10_120824169) for silk receptivity was associated with protein phosphatase 2C, which has an important role in phosphorylation/dephosphorylation of heat shock proteins, possibly promoting the silk to survive under high temperatures. The SNP marker S3_220855063 was found to be associated with hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins, which plays an important role pollen tube and silk growth. These SNP markers linked to the functionality of silk and pollen may be the ideal candidate for developing heat tolerant hybrids.

Biography:

Dr Jasdeep Chatrath Padaria has completed her PhD from Indian Agricultural Research Institute and postdoctoral studies in the area of Gene expression profiling with respect to abiotic stress tolerance at Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture,Purdue University, USA. She is the working as Principal Scientist in the area of biotechnology and climate change at National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, a premier institute in the area of plant molecular biology and biotechnology.She has published more than 25 papers in reputed journals and has guided 15 MSc and PhD students.The present study involved identification of abiotic stress responsive genes from tolerant plant systems as Penniseteum glaucum, Triticum aestivum , Ziziphus nummularia and Prosopis cineraria using Roche 454 and Illumina sequencing platforms. De novo assembly and transcriptome annotations were preformed to have insight about genes, gene family and transcriptional factors related to abiotic stress. Further analysis for change in expression level of known and unknown genes, SNP detection and SSR marker detection have been carried out to identify stress responsive genes and stress tolerance linked markers. A few stress responsive genes as NAC, P5CS, WRKY, HSP, MYB, ASR, DREB etc have been identified and characterized. These genes are further functionally validated and have been transformed in elite Indian bread wheat for development of transgenic wheat tolerant to abiotic stress.

Abstract:

Wheat (Triticum sp.) stands as the second largest staple crop of the world with 17% of the total cultivatable land under wheat production. Global annual wheat production needs to be increased at quantum leaps from the present production of more than 650 million metric tonnes so as to feed the ever burgeoning world population. Unfortunately, with the changing global climate, various abiotic stresses further hamper the wheat productivity. Development of abiotic stress tolerant cultivars is necessary to achieve the goal of enhanced wheat productivity. With the available gene pool within a species becoming limited, it becomes imperative that we search genes responsible for abiotic stress tolerance across the species, genus and even kingdom and using r- DNA technology develop transgenic wheat tolerant to abiotic stresses. The present study involved identification of abiotic stress responsive genes from tolerant plant systems as Penniseteum glaucum, Triticum aestivum , Ziziphus nummularia and Prosopis cineraria using Roche 454 and Illumina sequencing platforms. De novo assembly and transcriptome annotations were preformed to have insight about genes,  gene family  and transcriptional factors rela ted to abiotic stress. Further analysis for change in expression level of known and unknown   genes  , SNP detection and SSR marker detection have been carried out to identify stress responsive  genes  and stress tolerance linked markers. A few stress responsive genes as NAC, P5CS, WRKY, HSP, MYB,   ASR, DREB etc have been identified and characterized. These genes are further functionally validated and have been transformed in elite Indian bread wheat for development of transgenic wheat tolerant to abiotic stress.

Biography:

Professor Liang Chen has completed his PhD on Tea Science from Zhejiang University, China and postdoctoral studies from Cornell University, USA. Now, he is the associate director of National Center for Tea Improvement, TRICAAS. He has published more than 30 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of repute.

Abstract:

‘Anji Baicha’ is an elite albino tea cultivar of very high quality and popularity in China, with white shoots at low air temperature and green shoots at high temperature in early spring. Metabolomic analyses found that the main differential metabolic pathways between the albescent stage and the green stage included carbon fixation in photosynthetic organisms and the phenylpropanoid and flavonoid biosynthesis pathways. Compared with the green stage, the carbohydrate and amino acid metabolic pathways were disturbed during the albescent stages. There were higher levels of β-carotene and theanine but lower level of chlorophyll a in the white stage than in the green stage. During the albescent stages, the sugar (fructofuranose), sugar derivative (glucose-1-phosphate) and epicatechin concentrations decreased, whereas the amino acid (mainly glycine, serine, tryptophan, citrulline, glutamine, proline, and valine) concentrations increased. Transcriptomic analyses were applied to analyze the expression profiles changes in the different color stages. The transcriptomes of the plant leaves were highly divergent between different color stages, as approximately three-quarters of all unigenes were differentially expressed between different color stages. Functional classification based on Gene Ontology enrichment and KEGG enrichment analyses revealed that these differentially expressed unigenes were mainly involved in metabolic pathways, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and carbon fixation in photosynthetic organisms. Furthermore, differentially expressed unigenes involved in carotenoid biosynthesis, chlorophyll biosynthesis, and theanine biosynthesis were identified. These results provide a further understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying albino phenomena.

Biography:

Anna-Maria Botha-Oberholster (née Botha) received training in Plant Genetics at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel and the Salk Institute of Biological Science, USA. From 1994, she actively mentored students and has been affiliated to several academic institutions globally. Highlights in her career spanning more than 20 years, include representing Africa at the initiation meeting that started the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium in Washington DC, in 2004 and at IBSA (now BRICS) in Brazil in 2008. Her research outputs include more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in accredited international journals, 5 book chapters, numerous peer-reviewed conference proceedings, technical reports and popular articles. Her Cereal

Abstract:

Wheat Dn genes afford resistance to the economically important pest, Diuraphis noxia (Kurdjumov, Russian wheat aphid, RWA) and have been the topic of transcriptomic and proteomic studies aimed at unravelling the pathways involved in resistance. However, despite numerous efforts to isolate these Dn genes, none of them had been cloned and sequenced and this can partly be ascribed to the complexity and size of the bread wheat genome, as well as the apparent centromeric location of these genes. To date, several R-gene targets were investigated using viral induced gene silencing (VIGs) in wheat. However, the availability of the complete genome of the pest has opened up new avenues of study to unravel the complex interaction between these organisms.The current study explores both avenues. Candidate plant resistance genes were silenced in planta and aphid response assessed, while candidate aphid effectors were also delivered in planta to assess their respective functions during host-pest interactions. In all cases, the aphids were allowed to feed, where after reproduction was recorded. The ectopic expression of the gene targets was also quantified using RT-PCR analysis.

Biography:

Zhixi Tian completed his PhD from Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and postdoctoral studies from Purdue University, United State of America. He is a principle investigator of Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology. His research interesting focus on functional genomics and genetics of soybean. His lab will combine association mapping, QTL mapping, map-based cloning along with comparative genomic to identify the underlying network controlling important agronomical traits and to apply them into soybean breeding. He has published more than 27 papers in reputed journals.

Abstract:

Many agronomically important traits exhibit modularity and tend to be tightly integrated. The understanding of how traits become associated or correlated is essential in the improvement of complex traits. Soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) is a major crop of agronomic importance as the predominant source of animal feed protein and cooking oil, which was domesticated from wild soybean (G. soja Sieb. & Zucc.) in China 5,000 years ago. Understanding soybean domestication and improvement and a comprehensive dissection of the genetic basis of agronomic traits is important for soybean improvement. By analysis of several hundred resequenced wild, landrace and improved soybean accessions, we detect 230 selective sweeps and 162 selected copy number variants. Combined with previous quantitative trait loci (QTL) information, we find that, of the 230 selected regions, 96 correlate with reported oil QTLs and 21 contain fatty acid biosynthesis genes 96 of which correlate with reported oil QTLs. Moreover, we detect more than two thousands association signals via a comprehensive GWAS for dozens of agronomic traits. Through modeling analyses, we find that amount of association sites are tightly linked and form a complex network to regulate the modularity of different complex traits. This study provides valuable resources for genomics-enabled improvements in soybean molecular breeding.

Biography:

Eviatar Nevo has worked at University of Haifa, Israel. International experience includes various programs, contributions and participation in different countries for diverse fields of study. Research interests reflect in his/her wide range of publications in various national and international journals

Abstract:

Sympatric speciation (SS), the origin of new species within a free breeding population or contiguous populations has been under continuous controversy since first proposed by Darwin in his Origin. "Evolution Canyon" (EC) at Mount Carmel, Israel has been a fruitful microclimatic natural model for unraveling incipient adaptive ecological sympatric speciation across life from bacteria through plants and animals. EC consists of hot and dry, south facing, savannoid "African" slope (AS) abutting with a cool and humid, north-facing, forested "European" slope, separated on average by 250 meters. Here, I describe incipient adaptive SS in wild barley, Hordeum spontaneum, the progenitor of all world cultivated barley at EC, based on inter-slope divergent adaptive complexes, inferior inter-slope crosses than intra-slope crosses and sharply divergent RNA-seq and whole genome inter-slope contrasts. Inter-slope adaptive complexes include phenotypically, interslope divergent flowering time, early at AS and late at ES and genotypically, higher genetic polymorphism of allozyme and DNA diversities on AS, higher drought resistance on AS, based on dehydrins, rhizosphere bacteria, and EibiI gene and higher resistance against rust fungi on ES. Wild barley at EC was domesticated by humans in Neolithic times and harbors important abiotic and biotic genetic resources for future cultivated barley improvement.

Biography:

MD. MONIRUL ISLAM has completed his M.S in Biotechnology at the age of 28 years from Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh. He has published more than 5 papers in reputed journals.

Abstract:

Molecular markers especially, microsatellite or simple sequence repeats (SSRs) was the marker aided selection (MAS) technique utilized to determine salinity tolerance in rice. It accelerates rice breeding process by significantly improving selection efficiency. Fourty varieties were used to study the effect of salt stress on seedling growth and efficiency of SSR markers for the screening of salt tolerant varieties. Phenotyping of the varieties at the seedling stage was done using salinized (EC=12ds/m) culture solution under controlled conditions at the Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) glasshouse. Salt tolerant varieties showed stunted growth with the reduction of leaf area over the varieties of non-saline conditions. The seedlings grown from the normal seeds were vigorous than the seedlings from the seeds of saline conditions. This result indicated the impediment of seed vigor due to salt stress. The salt tolerant varieties from saline conditions were used to evaluate the efficiency of salt stress linked markers viz., RM231, RM24, RM334, RM32 and RM219 which were selected from the previous studies at IRRI in salinity screening program of known tolerant variety Pokkali and susceptible variety IR29. The efficiency was estimated by calculating the ratio of salt tolerant varieties (phenotypically) in saline conditions and amplification of markers against the same

Biography:

Alex Thomas completed his M.Pharm. from Dr. MGR medical university, Tamil Nadu in the year 2013. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in VIT University, Tamil Nadu. He started his career as toxicologist at CARe Keralam Ltd. Kerala. He is now working as Scientist, Department of Toxicology at International Institute of Biotechnology and Toxicology (GLP certified), Tamil Nadu.

Abstract:

The incidence of diabetes mellitus is on the rise due to population growth, aging, urbanization, increasing prevalence of obesity and decreasing physical activity. Ever since the adoption of Alma Ata Declaration in 1978 by the W.H.O., there is a growing global interest in the use of plants for treating diseases. Tinospora crispa is is a medicinal herb widely distributed in Southeast Asia. The insulinotropic action of T. crispa was investigated using isolated rat islets of Langerhans or HIT-T15 B cells. When incubated with rat islets and HIT-T15 B cells, T. crispa extract caused a dose-related stimulation of basal and glucose- stimulated insulin secretion respectively. The insulinotropic effect was also demonstrated in perifused human islets, rat islets and HIT-T15 B cells. In all the three models insulin secretion rates returned to basal levels after removal of the extract. All these observations indicate physiological release of insulin by β-cells. Four human clinical trials have been conducted with T. crispa so far. Among them the only study reporting positive effect of T. crispa is the one by Sriyapai et al (2009, J Health Res 23: 125-133 ), who conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study in thirty-six patients with metabolic syndrome. They received 250 mg of T. crispa dry powder, twice daily for two months. Patients who received T. crispa powder had significantly lower fasting blood sugar and triglyceride levels. Several published studies confirm the insulinotropic action of T. crispa. Therefore, well-controlled clinical trials using therapeutically active doses of crude T. crispa powder or the extract are required.

Biography:

Dr. Naglaa A. Ashry has graduated and had her MSc and PhD from genetics section, Ain Shams University (Molecular genetics). She worked at Agricultural Research Center since 1984where she is now acting as a professor of genetics. She is the ex-head of Cell Research Departments. She initiated the plant molecular biology Lab. in FCRI-ARC. She is interested in the use of MAS. She participated and leaded research some projects funded either by Egyptian or European funding agencies and acted as FCRI focal point for the EU-funded projects. She also Participated in writing a book chapter "plant biodiversity and biotechnology" published in a book entitled with’ from plant genomics to plant biotechnology” 2013. She has submitted a number of ESTs to NCBI related to plant biotic and abiotic tolerance.

Abstract:

This study focused on the effective abiotic stress responsive element known as Dehydration responsive element binding factor (DREB) in Acacia nilotica subsp nilotica as a crop legumes wild relative representing a candidate of genetic resource for many important genes. DREB protein is a subfamily of AP2/ERF transcription factors, which control expression of many drought and salinity inducible genes and encode tolerance to environmental stresses in many plants. The objective of this study was to identify and molecular characterize one of the most common abiotic stress related genes (DREB genes) as a transcription factor for abiotic stress genes. A novel DNA fragment was amplified using specific primer for Arabidopsis thaliana DREB gene using extracted genomic A. nilotica DNA. The resulted amplicone was sequenced and submitted to NCBI with the accession number JX539903. Similarity searching was performed to identify the similar sequences vs. isolated fragment using BLASTN tool at the NCBI database. The results showed similarity between Acacia amplified fragment and Medicago truncatula, G. max and A. thaliana as model biological systems. Translation of the fragment into hypothetical protein showed similarities with Glycosyltransferase genes known to have a role in plant abiotic stress tolerance.

Biography:

Lijuan Qiu has completed her PhD from Northeast Agricultural University. She is the Vice Director of Crop Molecular Biology Department and a Vice Director of Chinese Soybean Professional Association. She has published more than 88 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of repute.

Abstract:

Although crop wild relatives are an important source of genetic diversity for agriculture, it is their gene repertoire which remains largely unexplored. Here we report the establishments and analysis of a pan-genome of Glycine soja; the wild progenitor species of cultivated soybean Glycine max, by de novo sequencing of seven representative accessions. Inter-genomic comparison identified lineage-specific  genes  and genes with copy number variations or large-effect mutations, some of which have undergone positive selection and may contribute to vari ation of key agronomic traits such as pathogen or pest resistance, seed composition, flowering time and maturity, biomass and organ size. Approximately 80% of the pan-genome was present in all seven accessions, while the rest was dispensable and exhibited greater adaptive selection than the core genome, perhaps reflective of their distinct roles in adaptation to diverse environment. This work will facilitate the harnessing of untapped genetic diversity from wild soybean for enhancement of elite cultivars.

Biography:

Dr Delphine Fleury completed her PhD in 2001 at the ENSAT (Toulouse, France) and her postdoctoral training in 2005 at the Department of Plant Systems Biology (VIB, Ghent, Belgium).

Abstract:

Climate change is predicted to lead to more episodes of drought and heat and requires the breeding of tolerant cultivars able to sustain production under stress. The discovery and use of new dwarfing and maturity alleles were major advances in wheat breeding that led to the high yielding varieties of the Green revolution of the 1960s. Over the past decade yield improvement has slowed to about 1% increase per year. A way to improve the drought tolerance of crops varieties is to discover new genes and alleles that allow plants to continue to grow and yield grain under water limited conditions. Although many quantitative trait loci (QTL) have been identified in wheat few have been deployed in breeding programmes. Over ten years program, the ACPFG has cumulated QTL information on three genetic populations for yield,   agronomical  ,  physiological  and morphological traits in vari ou s locations in Australia, India and Mexico. Genomic resources have tremendously increased in the last years, which enable us making progress in fine mapping and positional cloning of drought tolerance QTL. One of our targets is qDHY.3BL, a QTL that increases yield and yield components in hot and dry climates. qDHY.3BL was fine mapped using the cv Chinese Spring reference sequence of chromosome 3B and whole genome shotgun sequences of Australian parental lines. We also identified haplotypes at the QTL interval from a diverse wheat panel combining 800 worldwide accessions and studied their distribution among these accessions.

Biography:

Yuanhu Xuan has obtained his PhD degree in 2010 from Gyeongsang National University, Korea and Post-doc training in Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington. He is now working at the Department of  Plant Protection  in Shenyang Agricultural University, China as a professor. He is currently interested in identifying the role of nutrient transporters in plants and environment interaction as well as crop production. 

Abstract:

The promotive action of brassinosteroids (BRs) on   plant growth   and development has been widely investigated at the  genetic  and cell biological level. Although growth promotion may also   rely on improved plant nutrition, it is not known whether BRs may directly act on nutrient uptake. In this study, we explored the possibility of a direct relationship between BRs and ammonium uptake via expression of AMMONIUM TRANSPORTER 1 (AMT1)-type genes in rice roots. BR treatment increased the expression of AMT1;1 and AMT1;2, whereas in the mutant d61-1, which is defective in the BR-receptor gene BRI1, BR-dependent expression of these genes was suppressed. We then employed the transcription factor RAV-Like 1 (RAVL1), which is involved in BR homeostasis, to investigate BR-mediated AMT1 expression and its effect on NH4+ uptake in rice roots. BR-dependent induction of AMT1;2 was suppressed in the ravl1 mutant, while overexpression of RAVL1 increased AMT1;2 transcript levels. EMSA and ChIP analyses showed that RAVL1 activates the expression of AMT1;2 by directly binding to E-box motifs in its promoter. Moreover, 15NH4+ uptake in roots, cellular ammonium contents, and root responses to methyl ammonium strongly depended on RAVL1 expression levels. Analyzing AMT1;2 expression levels in different crossings between BRI1 and RAVL1   mutant   and overexpression lines further indicated that RAVL1 acts downstream of BRI1 in the NH4+-dependent induction of AMT1;2. Thus, the present study shows how BRs can interfere with the  transcriptional regulation  of nutrient transporters to modulate their uptake capacity.  

Biography:

Reshma has completed her MSc from India and worked at ICRISAT India, IPK Gatersleben Germany, University of Saskatchewan &  Agriculture  and Agri-Food Canada in Canada. She has also gained industry experience from Bayer CropSciences and Agrisoma Biosciences Inc at Can-ada. She has pu blished numerous papers to her credit. In her current role She is working with Agrisoma Biosciences on Carinata to improve the Jet Fuel.

Abstract:

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is a global hunger & climate-change solution crop grown in the hottest, driest areas where dryland, rainfed and irrigated agriculture are practiced. Its production is most limited by low soil fertility and drought, and their interactions. Evidence suggests that phosphorus (P) is even more limiting than water in drier semi-arid zones of Africa and the Indian sub-continent. Plant species have evolved several adaptations to acquire P from P-deficient environments. These include changes in root architecture and exudates … that allow plants to access water and soil nutrients from larger soil volumes. The first component of this strategy can include shifts in plant root architecture (e.g., root depth explored, degrees and angles of branching, and proportions of fine vs thick roots). A second component of this strategy can involve acidification of the rhizosphere to mobilize poorly-available soil P, Fe, Zn, …. A third possible component of this strategy uses root exudates to attract symbiotic actinomycetes, bacte-ria, and/or mycorrhizae, …; but, this risks stimulating seed germination of parasitic weeds like Striga, Allectra and Orobanche spp. In situations where total soil P is limited, the only option may be to apply P; however, much applied P will soon be fixed in the soil in plant-non-available form(s). Limited access to P fertilizers, their high costs, and the relatively in-efficient use of ap-plied P fertilizers by the standing crops, make this a less viable option for resource-poor farmers in developing countries, especially in land-locked countries of West Africa where high transport costs result in local fertilizer prices three times the global average. Rock phosphates are slow-release and low-cost forms of phosphorus fertilizer which offer cost-effective solutions for af-fordable P supply to improve crop-livestock system productivity and sustainability in Africa and elsewhere. However, rock phosphates differ dramatically in their solubilities, and plants differ in their abilities to access these different forms of soil phosphates. Pearl millet genomic regions contributing to its low-P tolerance and/or ability to acquire P from poorly-soluble soil forms, are not yet understood well enough for applied use in marker-assisted selection to improve genetic gain for these traits. However, studies that provide some initial ideas are underway for this crop, as well as for rice, maize, and sorghum, in which such research has advanced considerably. Once the genomic regions contributing to more efficient phosphorus acquisition and use are mapped, it will be possible to use genome-wide marker-assisted selection to improve crop nutrient uptake from various forms of phosphorus applied to low-fertility soils.

Biography:

Neeti Sanan Mishra has completed her PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. She is the Group Leader of the Plant RNAi Biology Group at International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, India. She is working towards understanding the miRNA networks involved in regulating the plant development and yields. She was awarded the Dr. C.R.K.M. Memorial Young Scientist Award. She is accredited with number of patents and publications in reputed national and international journals.

Abstract:

microRNAs (miRNAs) are documented as crucial modulators of  gene expression  in plant growth and development. Cumulative substantiation supports the  fact that miRNAs act as genetic shields against various  abiotic  and biotic stress conditions by regulating  plant gene expression. We adopted the approach of Next Generation Sequencing (Illumina) technology for comparative profiling of miRNAs from different tissues under high temperature and salt stress physiologies in different Indian rice varieties. This revealed the expression patterns of several known and novel miRNAs. The expression patterns of selected stress deregulated miRNAs and their targets were experimentally validated. Time kinetics studies helped to apprehend the narrow windows of miRNA; target correlations indicating their role in stress response and development. This data was compiled and developed as a web server, ARMOUR, which is now being used to select miRNAs for functional analysis. The studies have indicated novel outcomes that can be utilized to prepare “climate smart plants”, which will be an enduring step to fight against abiotic stresses mediated decline in crop yields in rice.

Biography:

Ram Swaroop Meena is working at Banaras Hindu University, India. International experience includes various programs, contributions and participation in different countries for diverse fields of study and interests reflect in wide range of publications in various national and international journals

Abstract:

World population is approaching 7.5 billion and there are nearly a billion malnourished peoples. Extreme weather events such as droughts and floods are predicted to become more frequent, adding to the global burden of hunger caused by poverty, weak governance, conflict and poor market access. Modern agricultural technologies and molecular biology cannot be substituted for increase food production and livelihood to the increasing world population under climate change. Modern crop production technology has considerably raised output but has created problems of land degradation, pesticide residue in farm produce, gene erosion, atmospheric and water pollution. The task of meeting the needs of the present generation without eroding the ecological assets of the future generation should be the prime objective. This objective can be achieved only by adopting such technologies which improve resource use efficiency in agriculture. In this context use of nanocomposite polymers may be a novel technology which can improve food production without threatening the environment and the natural resources. The use of polymers in agriculture is gaining popularity in science, particularly in the field of polymer chemistry. Polymers are used to improve soil permeability, density, structure, increase moisture content in soil and increase the efficiency of pesticides and herbicides, allowing lower doses to be used and to indirectly protect the environment by reducing pollution and cleanup existing pollutants. Nanotechnology has numerous applications in agriculture especially in nanofertilizers and the nanodelivery systems for delivery of nutrients to plant roots which enhance nutrient use efficiency the amount of biomass C added to the soil. They can also be used as sorbents of environmental contaminants. Polymers can be used to increase nutrient and soil water holding capacity and enhance C input into the soil. Nano films used appropriately can prevent escape of H2O molecules from plants without inhibiting the CO2 exchange. Nanocomposite polymers are substances which are able to absorb huge amount of water and nutrient. Amended to soil they increase its water capacity, decrease evapotranspiration and allow plants to increase biomass. This innovative method is known to be easy, cheap and ecological. It lets to decrease costs of irrigation and humans work, enables to safe water and energy with holding the chemical safety for the environment under current climatic situations.

Biography:

Emmanuel is currently working as a professor at University of Abuja, Nigeria in Federal University Lafia, Nigeria. International experience includes various programs, contributions and participation in different countries for diverse fields of study and interests reflect in wide range of publications in various national and international journals

Abstract:

A study was conducted to characterize the genetic diversity of 10 germplasm accessions of finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L) Gaertn) collected from diverse locations spread across the geographical zone of northern Nigeria. The digest was carried out using the molecular marker Restriction Fragment Digest (RFD) on agarose gel while EcoR1 and Hind III restriction enzymes were used to cut the genomic DNA at specific sites. The results of our findings using RFD generated four clear DNA bands of molecular weights ranging from 10000, 8500, 1000 and 200 KDA. This clearly suggests the existence of polymorphism among the plant accessions. These results demonstrate the high variability that exists amongst the   genetic   traits for these germplasm accessions. Information on this plant is very useful in unraveling the pedigree  genetic  relationships as well as in designing breeding and selection experiments for improvement of this crop in Nigeria. These results will further stimulate growing interest on the genetic diversity and classification of th is neglected  and underutilized species.

Biography:

Gyuhwa Chung was a Full Professor of Department of Biomedical and Electronic Engineering, Chonnam National University. He is a Manager of Chung's Wild Legume Germplasm Collection (CWLGC) directly collected during last 30 years from Korea, Japan, China, Russia, etc. He has published more than 25 papers with 30.28 impact points.

Abstract:

Auxin response factors (ARFs) encode one of the most abundant groups of auxin mediated response transcription factors in higher plants and play as a major role in different biological process. The success of whole genome sequencing allows analysis more comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the ARF genes in plants. In the present study, we identified 80 ARF genes belonging to 5 different groups in legume species, soybean (55) and common bean (25) based on phylogenetic analysis and supported by motif analysis. The duplication event among two species has also observed by using Ka/Ks ratio. In soybean, a majority of ARF genes (40%; 22 of 55) were segmentally duplicated and 3.6% (2 of 55) of the genes were tandemly duplicated. This pattern was higher apparent in other plants. In addition, expression profiling indicated that ARF genes in soybean and common bean suggest its various functions in plant growth and development. Furthermore, Sp-1 and Skn-1 motif, which stable promoter involved in biotic and abiotic stresses and developmental processes were highly detected in all of GmARF. Together, our work contributes to a molecular evolution of the ARF gene family in legume species and is useful for future study.

Biography:

Ene-Obong has had a long and rewarding career both in teaching and research at the University of Nigeria (1974-1996), Michael Okpara University of Agriculture (1996 - 2008) and the University of Calabar (2008 till date ). While in these Universities, he had the opportunity to serve several other Universities on part-time or adjunct basis, including Anambra State University of Technology (1980-1983), University of Calabar (1980 - 2007), Enugu State University, Anambra State University, Awka (1988-1990), Ebonyi State University (1997-1999). He has served the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture as Dean, Director of Academic Planning, Director/Coordinator of Biotechnolgy Programme. Professor Ene-Obong was appointed the Rector of the Polytechnic Calabar, while on leave-of-absence (1999 – 2002). He was involved in the planning and implementation of the Cross River University of Technology, where he served succesfully as Provost, College of Science, Technology and Engineering (2002-2004) , Deputy Vice Chancellor (2004-2006) and Vice Chancellor(March 2009 – February 2014).

Abstract:

For efficient transformation of cassava to enhance the productivity of the crop, developing effective protocol for the genetic transformation is necessary. Ten Nigerian cassava cultivars were screened in vitro for production of friable embryogenic callus (FEC) and transformation using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. All the ten cassava genotypes screened produced organized embryogenic structures (OES) on Driver and Kuniyuki Walnut(DKW)medium supplemented with 50 µM picloram between two to four weeks after culture using immature leaf lobes as explants. However, the percentage of OES formation was variety dependent. TMS 96/1632 gave the highest percentage of OES (66%) in comparison to the TMS 60444 that served as control which produced 80% of OES. Conversely, friable embryogenic callus (FEC) production was achieved only in four cultivars – two improved varieties (TMS 96/1632 and TME 419) and two local land races (‘Okwuoto’ and ‘Nwugo’) in comparison to that produced by TMS 60444. In cassava somatic embryogenesis, generation of FEC is very important because they are the target tissues for transgene insertion. The friable embryogeniccalli generated by TME 419, ‘Okwuoto’ and the control TMS 60444 were selected and further screened for transformation via Agrobacterium mediated transformation. The Agrobacterium tumefaciens used carried the green fluorescent protein (GFP) as the marker gene. At the end of the transformation process, transgenic calli expressing the GFP gene were recovered from the three genotypes transformed. Regeneration of the transgenic calli into transgenic cotyledons were also achieved among the three genotypes screened but recovery of transgenic plantlets from the cotyledons were only actualized from those of cv. TMS 60444.

Biography:

Lifang Wu has obtained her PhD from Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, China and her Postdoctoral studies from National University of Singapore. She has published more than 50 papers in reputed journals such as nature, Plant Physiology , Genes and Development and so on. She is globally recognized as an expert on the molecular breeding of woody bioenergy plant species.

Abstract:

Sapium sebiferum Roxb., a monoecious deciduous tree of the Euphorbiaceae family, is an economically important multipurpose woody plant species in tropical and subtropical regions. Considering the huge potential of this species for ornamental, biomass and biodiesel-producing, it is essential for S. sebiferum to establish high efficient plant tissue culture procedures which can be used for large-scale propagation and genetic improvement. We have established high efficient plant regeneration systems through different pathways by using different parts of S. sebiferum as explants. And based on those plant regeneration systems, we have established a high efficient genetic transformation system. Our results provide critical information for the propagation and the genetic improvement of S. sebiferum.

Biography:

John Salmeron is the Director of Plant Sciences at Precision BioSciences, Inc., in Durham NC, USA and has worked in the field of Plant Biotechnology for over 20 years. Prior to joining Precision, he held positions in Business Development and led the agricultural R&D team at Intrexon Corporation, a Leader in Synthetic Biology. He was a Research Portfolio Manager at Syngenta Biotechnology Inc., and held leadership roles directing teams in trait development and genomics. He is the Founder of eiiConsulting, an early-stage biotechnology consulting firm. He has an AB degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a PhD from Duke University.

Abstract:

Genome editing promises to drive a new generation of crop trait products, with reduced development times, low regulatory hurdles, and broad application. The ARCUS technology platform at Precision BioSciences delivers custom meganuclease editing agents with extremely high levels of specificity. Delivered through a rapid cell-based screening process, ARCUS nucleases have been proven effective across a wide range of target sitesfor gene mutation, deletion and insertion in a variety of crops.

Biography:

Vimala Devi Sadanandam has completed her Ph.D from University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India. She has done her postdoctoral studies in Conservation, Molecular Diversity Analysis, Transgenic development in various plant species. At present she is Senior Scientist at Central Agroforestry Research Institute, Jhansi a premier Institute of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India and her present area of work is on Conventional and Molecular Improvement of biofuel species –Jatropha , Pongamia and Madhuca for yield and oil content.

Abstract:

Pongamia, or pongam or Indian beech tree, (Pongamia pinnata (L.) Pierre), a preferred species among tree borne oilseeds for its immense utility in reclamation of soils through nitrogen fixation, tolerance to drought and salinity and biodiesel suitable oil quantity and quality. A Native of Southeast Asia grows in wide edapho-climatic region of the Indian Subcontinent and also occurs naturally in Australia. Pongamia’s oilrich seeds have sparked considerable attention as a source of high quality biodiesel. To understand the oil related traits at molecular level, novel high-throughput next generation sequencing (NGS) using Illumina Hiseq 2500 were employed in pongmaia seeds.A 292.0 (ng/µl) of RNA extracted from mature seeds with 378 ng/µl of Qubit concentration with RIN value of 6.1 was used for construction of paired end library prep. De novo transcriptome analysis was done by fastq quality check, transcriptome assembly and filter, expression estimate, differential expression analysis and transcriptome annotation. A 97,816,682 number of total reads and 48,908,341 number of paired-end reads with 9.78 Gb base pairs and 42.78 % GC content data was generated. The average base quality was above Q30 (error-probability >= 0.001) for 90% of bases and the average GC content of the reads in the sample followed a normal distribution. After various high stringency quality control steps, 83.23 M nuclear reads were processed CANoPI – Contig Annotator Pipeline, yielding 106832 unique contigs of > than 200bp. The final assembly encompassed 106,832 unique contigs. Sequence alignment with several reference genomes, including Glycine max and other tree borne oilseed species, coupled with functional comparisons such as GO, revealed a gamout of expected assortment of expressed genes viz., 2,620 involved in biological process, 2,542 in molecular fuctions and 1,319 in cellular components. In addition, a total of 42,235 SSRs were predicted from 106,832 unique contigs, belonging to 6 classes of microsatellites. Among the 9,558,848 organellar transcripts obtained 317 unique transcripts were obtained which related to 42 biological process and 87 molecular functions and 83 cellular components. 159 SSRs were predicted from 317 unique contigs, which can be used for diversity analysis in the germplasm collections and other molecular analysis.

Biography:

Jiuhuan Feng received her PhD in Genetics and Plant Breeding at South China Agricultural University and was a postdoctoral fellow in USDA-ARS Fargo ND from 2004-2009. Currently, her research mainly focuses on map-based gene cloning using rice as a model at South Dakota State University. She has published more than 20 papers in peer-reviewed journals since 2004 and has been an invited reviewer for a number of scientific journals and grant proposals.

Abstract:

Seed dormancy is a key adaptive trait for wild species and also one of major domestication-related traits for crops. Of the Seed dormancy QTL differentiated between weedy and cultivated rice (Oryza sativa), qSD12 contributed most to the phenotypic variation. High-resolution mapping and progeny population analysis delimited qSD12 to a genomic region of <80 kb including 3 adjacent candidate genes (SD12a, SD12b and SD12c) interspaced by a group of 6 tandem transposon/retrotransposon (TP/RTP). SD12a and SD12c encode predicted bHLH domain-containing transcription factors while SD12b encodes a hypothetical protein. All three candidate genes were confirmed for seed dormancy by complementation. Phylogenetic analysis for the ~2Mb region flanking the QTL using 188 accessions of wild (90), weedy (12) and cultivated (86, mainly landraces) rice demonstrated that SS18-2 is exclusively clustered with 54 rufipogon accessions and the SS18-2-like haplotype is not present in the cultivated genotypes tested, suggesting that some of the seed dormancy genes may have been eliminated at the beginning of the domestication. Gene expression analyses indicated that all three genes are mainly expressed in developing embryos to regulate the seed dormancy development. RNA-sequence analysis identified a pool of candidate genes differentially expressed in developing embryos from three isogenic lines; and the downstream genes mainly consist of those with predicted functions for responses to abiotic stimuli and heat shock proteins. The findings from this research provide a unique model to explain evolutionary and developmental mechanisms of seed dormancy in grass species and candidate genes to manipulate germination capability in rice breeding programs.

Biography:

Mahmoud Bagheri is a faculty member of Vegetable and Irrigated Pulses Research Department, Seed and Plant Improvement Institute (SPII), Karaj, Iran. He is a plant breeder and he has worked more than 10 years on eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) breeding by classic and molecular methods. He is the coordinator of Solanaceous crop research programs at SPII. He is also the Iranian member of Codex Committee on Fresh Fruit and Vegetables (CCFFV). He has published more than 10 papers in related journals.

Abstract:

One of the undesirable traits in eggplant is the bitterness of fruits. Eggplant specific piquant and bitter taste is mainly due to the presence of solasonine glycoalkaloid. Solasonine is generated and accumulated by adding sugars to solasodine alkaloid by solasodine glycosyltransferase (SGT) enzymes. These enzymes have been purified and characterized in eggplant, but the encoding genes have not been identified before. In this study, sgt1 gene sequences in solanaceae family were collected and conserved sites were specified by multi-alignment and proper primers were designed. DNA and RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis were conducted by related protocols. PCR reactions for DNA and cDNA, with different combinations of the designed primers, lead to amplification of various bands in different sizes between 200 to 3000 bp. These fragments were separated and sequenced. The obtained sequences were assayed and by elimination of overlap sites, sequences of encoding site of this gene were achieved. Bioinformatics' analysis illustrated high similarity between our got sequence and sgt1 gene sequences in other species of solanaceae family such as potato, tomato, pepper, and tobacco. Access to the sequence of sgt1 gene in eggplant can be a preliminary to similar studies and attainment to sgt2 and sgt3 sequences. Down expressing and silencing of these genes would result production of new eggplant genotypes with less bitterness and better quality.

Biography:

Prof. Meenu Kapoor completed her Ph.D. at the Center for Gene Research, Nagoya University, Japan. Thereafter, she worked as Post-doctoral fellow in the Center of Excellence Project at the National Institute of Agro-biological Sciences (NIAS) with Hiroshi Takatsuji at Tsukuba Science City near Tokyo. She is presently heading the group on Plant Epigenetics in the School of Biotechnology and has four international patens to her credit, besides having published many research papers in International journals of repute. She is an active member of committees evaluating projects to be funded by Government of India, National Institute of Health, USA and National Science Center, Government of Poland.

Abstract:

Liverworts, hornworts and mosses form a paraphyletic group among bryophytes that diverged early from the lineage that gave rise to flowering plants. Among these, mosses have had a tremendous impact on different ecosystems and climatic conditions during the pre-cambrian era that paved way for colonization of land by animals. Physcomitrella patens occupies a key position among bryophytes between the  green algae  and the vascular plants. Its genomic study prov ides insight into the adaptations made by these plants to withstand extreme environmental conditions that eventually lead to colonization of land by these plants. The “green yeast’, as it is sometimes called, exhibits a high rate of homologous recombination. This, together with the ease of transformation and high regeneration capacity has resulted in emergence of P. patens as a model plant for reverse genetics approaches for gene functions analysis. Exploiting this potential, we have generated stable gene knockout mutants for cytosine DNA methyltransferases, PpCMT and PpDNMT2 and the putative PRC1 component, PpLHP1. Whole  genome  transcriptome analysis has revealed the role of  epigenetic  modifications, such as DNA methylation, in reg  ulating genes/biological pathways affecting cell wall biosynthesis, developmental transition from juvenile to adult phase and abiotic stress tolerance. We provide   genetic   evidence for regulation of apical  cell growth , cell wall loosening and gravitropic response by PpCMT/PpLHP1 comp lex. Protein-protein interaction stud ies reveal other components of PRC1 complex to be possibly involved in these pathways. We also highlight the role of the DNA/RNA methyltransferase, PpDNMT2 in regulating salt and osmotic stress tolerance by affecting biogenesis/stability of specific transfer RNA molecules.

Biography:

Lingyun Zhang has completed her PhD from China Agricultural University in 2003 and Postdoctoral studies from Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2006. She is currently working in Beijing Forestry University as a Professor. She has published more than 30 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as Reviewer for many journals around the world. Her research work is currently focusing on the molecular mechanisms of plant response to abiotic stress and fruit development and quality regulation.

Abstract:

Nuclear factor Y (NF-Y) is a highly conserved transcription factor comprising NF-YA, NF-YB and NF-YC subunits. To date, the roles of NF-Y subunit in plant still remain elusive. In this study, a subunit NF-YB (PwNF-YB3) was isolated from Picea wilsonii Mast. and its role was studied. PwNF-YB3 transcript was detected in all  vegetative  and reproductive tissues with higher levels in stem and  root and was greatly induced by salinity, heat and PEG but not by cold and ABA treatment. Over-expression of PwNF-YB3 in Arabidopsis showed a significant acceleration in the onset of flowering and resulted in more vigorous seed germination and significant tolerance for seedlings under salinity, drought and osmotic stress compared with wild type plants. Transcription levels of salinity responsive gene (SOS3) and drought induced gene (CDPK1) were substantially higher in transgenic Arabidopsis than in wild-type plants. Importantly, CBF pathway markers (COR15B, KIN1 and LEA76) but not ABA pathway markers CBF4 were greatly induced under condition of drought. Taken together, the data provide evidence that PwNF-YB3 positively confers significant tolerance to salt, osmotic and drought stress in transformed Arabidopsis plants probably through modulating gene regulation in CBF-dependent pathway.

Biography:

M Jayanthi has completed her under graduation in Agriculture and her Post graduation and PhD in Plant Biotechnology. Her PhD was under the guidance of Professor M. S. Swamina than who is the Father of Green revolution in India. She has worked on conservation of  biodiversity  and saving the rare endangered plants of Western Ghats for her PhD. She has the experience of working in several institutes like the TBGRI, Trivandrum, IGFRI, Jhansi, CTCRI, Trivandrum, IIOPR; Andhra Pradesh and on a wide range of crops like Rauvolfia species, Tylophora indica,

Abstract:

There are several reports of successful application of RNAi for functional validation of various genes of plant parasitic nematodes particularly under in vitro conditions. Delivering dsRNA to plant parasitic nematodes has been technically challenging, because these obligatory parasites requires living host for feeding and the pre-parasitic nematodes are of non feeding and do not ingest fluid at this stage. Several housekeeping and parasitism genes were silenced in vitro for functional studies using this approach are well documented. Due to grand success in functional genomics, RNAi has emerged as versatile tool with wide range of applications in plant biology. Recent developments in RNAi led to the identification of core RNAi components in many eukaryotes and have envisioned researchers to adopt this tool for wider applications in crop improvement including engineering crop plants against plant parasitic nematode menace. In the past decade, various studies indicated key developments in the RNAi machinery and also whole genome sequence data available for few of the plant-parasitic nematodes provides a new horizon for the successful exploitation of RNAi for nematode control. Expression of dsRNA, corresponding to the nematode target gene through host plant, mediates the production of siRNAs. Based on the sequence similarity between the siRNAs and the corresponding target mRNA, silencing is achieved upon nematode feeding. Although most of the reports successfully utilized RNAi for studying the gene function in vitro, however, they were not technically feasible to use as nematode control under field conditions. And major hurdle for potential application of plant-mediated RNAi was whether nematodes ingest dsRNA when feeding on plant cells expressing dsRNA constructs. The delivery of parasites gene-specific dsRNA through the host may be more effective and appropriate method for nematode control. Host-delivered RNAi appears to be most promising strategy for nematode control. Based on the choice of the target gene selected, it can be broadly categorized as dsRNA against the targets which are constitutively expressed throughout nematode life cycle, genes involved in nematode development, neurotransmission, nematode effectors/parasitism genes. Some of these nematode target genes have been validated experimentally through in vitro RNAi experiments in C. elegans and other plant parasitic nematodes. In our own laboratory it is found that silencing of several genes like FLP 18 and MSP1 can reduce the nematode attack in brinjal. All the above reports both under in vitro and in planta strongly indicate that utilization of several key nematode genes can be used for silencing through in planta RNAi for developing successful management of root knot and other important plant parasitic nematodes.

Biography:

Getachew Liku Aregawi has completed his BSc degree in Agriculture at Haramaya University, Ethiopia and his MSc degree in Plant Biotechnology at Hannover University, Germany. Currently, he is working at Haramaya University as Lecturer and Researcher

Abstract:

The role of auxin at molecular level in exerting rapid and specific effects on gene regulation has been reported by a number of studies. However, the mechanism of auxin perception and the identity of receptors are not fully elucidated. Transport Inhibitor Response 1 (TIR1) has been clearly identified as a receptor of auxin in the nucleus. In a sandwich complex,  TIR1  and IAA proteins bind auxin and this leads to proteosome mediated degradation of IAA proteins as negati ve transcriptional co-regulators. TIR1 has no role for very rapid cellular responses of auxin application at plasma membrane. Auxin-Binding-Protein 1 (ABP1) is a good candidate for this alternative auxin signaling pathway which is implicated in non transcriptional auxin signaling. ABP1 itself is expressed as auxin responsive gene mediated by TIR1. In this project the expression of ABP1 and thus, its role in auxin signaling has been investigated using a promoter GUS approach. Initially, two promoter fragments without exon-intron sequences coupled to the GUS gene were transformed into Arabidopsis and analyzed; these plants did not express GUS activities. Two promoter regions, one with exon and intron sequences downstream of the start codon (ABP1 (exon-intron)) and one without downstream sequences were additionally analyzed using the GUS activities in response to auxins and light. The GUS activity was strong in the seedlings expressing promoter regions with exon-intron sequences while there were low activities without exon-intron sequences observed after exogenous auxin or light treatment. The activity of GUS expressed by extended promoter with exon-intron and the positive control DR5-GUS increased with time and the concentration of exogenous auxin treatment. The extended promoter (ABP1 (exon-intron)) also showed higher GUS activities in response to red light and blue light while the promoter without exon-intron sequences and DR5 seedlings showed no GUS activities at all light conditions except low activity of GUS in the shoot meristem of DR5-GUS seedlings in response to red light. Generally, expression of GUS was observed around young leaves and root tips in response to auxin and light treatment.

Biography:

Abstract:

For efficient transformation of cassava to enhance the productivity of the crop, developing effective protocol for the genetic transformation is necessary. Ten Nigerian cassava cultivars were screened in vitro for production of friable embryogenic callus (FEC) and transformation using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. All the ten cassava genotypes screened produced organized embryogenic structures (OES) on Driver and Kuniyuki Walnut (DKW) medium supplemented with 50 µM picloram between two to four weeks after culture using immature leaf lobes as explants. However, the percentage of OES formation was variety dependent. TMS 96/1632 gave the highest percentage of OES (66%) in comparison to the TMS 60444 that served as control which produced 80% of OES. Conversely, friable embryogenic callus (FEC) production was achieved only in four cultivars; two improved varieties (TMS 96/1632 and TME 419) and two local land races (‘Okwuoto’ and ‘Nwugo’) in comparison to that produced by TMS 60444. In cassava somatic embryogenesis, generation of FEC is very important because they are the target tissues for transgene insertion. The friable embryogenic calli generated by TME 419, ‘Okwuoto’ and the control TMS 60444 were selected and further screened for transformation via Agrobacterium mediated transformation. The Agrobacterium tumefaciens used carried the green fluorescent protein (GFP) as the marker gene. At the end of the transformation process, transgenic calli expressing the GFP gene were recovered from the three genotypes transformed. Regeneration of the transgenic calli into transgenic cotyledons were also achieved among the three genotypes screened but recovery of transgenic plantlets from the cotyledons were only actualized from those of cv. TMS 60444.

Biography:

Zahid Ali has completed his PhD in 2007 from Leibniz University of Hanover Germany and Post doctorate from Leibniz Institute German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (DSMZ) Germany. He has published several research articles in reputed journals. Since 2012 he is serving as an Assistant Professor in Department of Biosciences COMSATS IIT Islamabad Pakistan and designed different MS/PhD courses. He is working on abiotic stress tolerance in higher plants through genetic engineering and environment risk assessment of GE plants and developed transgenic pea plants against abiotic stresses which are stable in multiple subsequent generations.

Abstract:

Plants are permanently exposed to various sometimes quite diverse-environmental constraints. Plants respond to combined stresses largely to ensure their individual survival. The complex interplay of stress responsive genes and their cross talk to depict various physiological stresses through induced adaptation systems has been a subject of intensive research to gain insights in to convergence of abiotic stress induced signal transduction in plants. By up-regulating a transgene responsible for osmotic stress tolerance (Atnhx1) driven by the P-MAS promoter in a dicistronic binary vector, we observed the multiple stress tolerance responses in transgenic pea plants. Results indicated that besides enhanced salt stress tolerance (up to 100 mM NaCl), surprisingly, the transgenic plants also showed enhanced frost and heat stress tolerance in comparison to wild type (WT) plants. The WT plant growth was significantly reduced under heat stress. Low temperature effect (0-2 °C) depicted decreased leaf chlorophyll contents in WT plants. The flowering was delayed for about 3 weeks in WT plants; however, the transgenic plants were flowered normal. The frost stress tolerance of the transgenic plants was unexpected, yet an important economic trait conferred by a known salt tolerance gene. The intimate difference in chlorophyll content of transgenic vs. WT plants under frost acclimation employs a presence of convergence at molecular/biochemical level in stress responsive pathways and will unveil the interaction of various stress induced pathways for overall stress adaptation in plants. Computational gene functional association networks studies on model plant A. thaliana suggested that Atnhx1 is co-expressing with Dreb1, which might also be responsible for an improved frost tolerance in the transgenic pea plants. The genetic stability of transgene was also observed in subsequent transgenic generations.

Biography:

Dr. Ajay Parida is a Plant molecular biologist with Ph.D. degree from University of Delhi in 1992. He has made outstanding contribution in the area of Coastal Ecosystem management using modern biotechnological tools. Dr. Parida has over 100 research papers in peer reviewed journals. Dr. Parida is Elected Fellow of the National Academy of Agriculture Sciences and National Academy of Sciences of India. He is recipient of many awards such as Prof. Umakant Sinha Memorial Award, B. M. Birla Prize and National Biosciences Award. He was also awarded Padmashri (a civilian award) by Govt. of India for his scientific contribution.

Abstract:

Agricultural productivity is majorly impacted due to various abiotic stresses, particularly salinity and drought. Halophytes serve as an excellent resource for identifying and developing new crop systems, as these grow very luxuriously in very high saline soils. In our laboratory we have used halophytic mangrove species (Avicennia marina, Porteresia coaractata, Sueda maritime, Salicornia brachiata) for understanding salinity stress tolerance mechanisms in halophytes. Using large scale sequencing approaches from salt stressed cDNA library, we have isolated, characterized and identified a number of candidate genes for salinity and drought stress. In this communication we report the use of AmSod1 cDNA by transforming it into rice and analysing the transgenic plants for abiotic stress tolerance. Southern hybridization of A. marina genomic DNA using Sod1, revealed that this gene inA. marina genome is present as a single copy. The cDNA was cloned into a binary vector (pCAMBIA 1300) and transformed into indica rice. Southern hybridization analysis of transgenic rice plants revealed stable integration of the Sod1 transgene in the rice genome. The mRNA transcript of Sod1 was detected by Northern hybridisation in the transgenic rice plants. SOD isozyme assay of the transgenic rice plants revealed the stable expression of the transgenic Sod1 protein. The transgenic plants also withstood salinity stress of 150 mM of NaCl. Pot grown transgenic plants could also tolerate salinity stress better than the untransformed control plants, when irrigated with saline water. The transgenic plants also revealed better tolerance to drought stress in comparison to untransformed control plants. This study shows that genes for halophyte systems can provide useful genetic combinations for addressing the abiotic stresses affecting the global agriculture.

Biography:

Professor Dr. C. D. Mayee born in July 1946 in Buldana, Maharashtra, India. He did his PhD in Plant Pathology from ICAR-IARI, New Delhi with Gold medal in 1972. German Language Grundstuffe I and II course at Goethe Institute, Rothenburg (Germany) in1980. Post Doc, AVH Fellow, (Germany) University of Hohenheim (1980-82). He was Vice Chancellor, Marathwada Agriculture University, Parbhani, June, 1997-August, 2000, later Director of ICAR-Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur 4.8.2000 to 14.7.2003, Then he served as Agricultural Commissioner, Govt. of India, New Delhi (15.07.2003 – 05.12.2004). Then be became Chairman, Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board, New Delhi (6.12.2004.-14.07.2011). Presently engaged as ADJUCNT PROFESSOR, I.A.R.I, New Delhi, Chairman, Agriculture Finance Corporation, Mumbai, and Executive Member of International Service for Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, USA, and African Biosafety Network, Burkina Faso. In research consistently worked in the area of plant protection for management of crop diseases of dry land crops like cotton, sorghum, pearl-millet, pulses, groundnut, and sunflower. Twenty five years of continuous research with the help of students (guided 20 PhD and 30 M.Sc. students) and series of ICAR funded projects. Cotton crop has been one of the passions for Dr. Mayee and his interest of R & D multiplied after assuming the positions of Director, Cotton Institute and Agriculture Commissioner at New Delhi. Cotton has always been benefited by new technologies. In 2002, the first GM crop i.e. Bt cotton has been permitted for commercial use in India. The evaluation, assessment, safety and all regulatory issues were handled by Dr. Mayee since 1998 and single handled perused for the release of the technology for cotton farmers of India in GEAC, New Delhi. Dr. Mayee received several academic awards such as Narasimhan Academic Merit Award (1974), Pesticide Award (1989), HAR & DF Award L (1978), V.P. Gokhale Award (1998), Outstanding Team Award of ICAR (2003) Sasya Suraksha Award and the prestigious Recognition Award by IPS, New Delhi for his research contributions.

Abstract:

Cotton is natural and renewable fiber. Cotton lint is priced based on the fiber properties. Presently textile industry use high speed open end rotor spinning machine which demand high strength (>30g/tex) and length (>2.8cm) with moderate fineness (3.7- 4.2 mic) of cotton lint. Most of the Indian varieties fail to fulfil the requirements especially strength. The discovery of the cotton cellulose synthase (GhcesA) genes encoding potential catalytic subunits of cellulose synthase revealed the involvement in biosynthesis of microfibrils of cellulose. A number of genes associated with fiber length (GhcesA1, GhcesA3, GhcesA5, GhcesA6 and GhcesA9) and strength (GhcesA1, GhcesA2, GhcesA7, GhcesA8, Ghfla3 and Ghcobl4) were identified. With that information we have studied the relative gene expression with GhcesA1, GhcesA2, GhcesA7, Ghcobl4, Ghfla3 and GhMT1genes using RILs mapping population and the results showed that GhcesA1, GhcesA2, Ghfla3 and Ghcobl4 had strong association and higher expression during secondary wall synthesis, which reveals the high fiber strength. Over expression and down regulation constructs for three potential genes such as GhcesA1, GhcesA2, and Ghfla3 were generated in plant transformation vector (pCAMBIA2300) driven by fibre specific promoter and the gene cassette were confirmed by restriction analysis. All the above genes are cloned under 990bp of GhcesA1 promoter sequences. Thus all the four genes were cloned for validation of their role by over expression as well as down regulation in low and high fiber strength genotypes of Indian cotton through transgenic approach.

Biography:

Robert Hasterok (PhD, DSc and Professor of biological sciences) is the head of the Department of Plant Anatomy and Cytology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. His current research interests focus on plant cytogenetics and molecular cytogenetics, especially on various aspects of the nuclear genome structure, evolution and dynamics at the chromosomal level of plants, analysed using the grass model organisms of the Brachypodium genus. He has published 50+ papers in reputable journals and books

Abstract:

Modern molecular cytogenetics combines various methodological approaches of cytology, molecular genetics and advanced digital image analysis. It focuses on the study of nuclear genomes at the microscopic level. The cytomolecular organisation of plant genomes is still rather poorly investigated, compared to that of animals. Most plant genomes, including those of economically and ecologically crucial cereals and forage grasses, are usually large and saturated with repetitive DNA, which hampers detailed molecular cytogenetic analyses. Model organisms possess a combination of features, which makes them more amenable to scientific investigation than others. One of the most recent and rapidly developing model systems are representatives of the Brachypodium genus, particularly B. distachyon. They possess small, and in some cases, already sequenced genomes with a low repeat content, diverse basic chromosome numbers and ploidy levels. They also have an interesting phylogeny, short life cycles and simple growth requirements, complemented by a rapidly and continuously growing repertoire of various experimental tools. This presentation outlines and discusses our current projects and their future prospects, using Brachypodium species for research on various aspects of grass genome organisation, e.g. (i) karyotype structure and evolution, (ii) distribution of chromosome territories within the nucleus, (iii) dynamics of epigenetic modifications of chromatin during embryo development and cell differentiation, (iv) true nature of selective silencing of rRNA genes in some Brachypodium allopolyploids and (v) instability of a small grass genome induced via mutagenic treatments.

Biography:

Dr.Sk.Z.Ali has completed his Ph.D in Microbiology during 2011 at Osmania University and postdoctoral studies under UGC-Dr.D.S.Kothari Post-Doctoral Fellowship scheme. He is presently working as Assistant professor at Agri Biotech Foundation, an NGO to promote Agri Biotechnologies to benefit farmers. His research focus is on Plant-Microbe Interactions for alleviation of drought and heat stress effects in plants. Dr.Ali was awarded by Association of Microbiologists of India the “Young Scientist Award” in Agricultural Microbiology (2012) and also received SERB Young Scientist Project. Presently handling three research projects and published 15 research articles and two book chapters in well-reputed International and National peer reviewed journals.

Abstract:

Today, the most challenging task ahead of farmers, scientists, and policy makers is to produce enough food for a steadily increasing global population on a steadily decreasing area of arable land under the prospect of a more unpredictable environment as a result of the climate change. Drought is one of the major constraints on agricultural productivity worldwide and is likely to further increase. Worldwide extensive research is being carried out to develop strategies to cope with drought stress through development of drought tolerant varieties, shifting the crop calendars, resource management practices etc. and most of these technologies are cost-intensive. Recent studies indicate that microorganisms can also help plants to cope with abiotic stresses. Application of microorganisms together with novel technologies for their monitoring can contribute to solve food security issues in the changing climates. Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria fortify plants and reveal unexpected tolerance potentials and mechanisms in plants. Our work is focused on Pseudomonas putida, a soil bacterium that gives diverse benefits to an unlimited range of plants. P. putida is capable of promoting plant growth and also provides protection for the plant from pests and other harmful bacteria. Here we aim to study the effects of the association between P. putida strain FBKV2 and maize DHM 117 during water depletion by identifying the early molecular and biochemical responses of maize. Our data suggest that plants can be protected from inhibitory effects of the drought stress by the P. putida FBKV2, although the degree of protection depends on the type of the bacterial strain and the plant genotype.

Biography:

Dr UTTAM C. SHARMA obtained his Ph.D. degree from Punjab Agricultural University and Graduation course in Cropping Systems from International Rice Research Institute, The Philippines. He is specialized in Crop Production, IWRM and Watershed Management, with more than 300 research papers. He has served as Principal Scientist and Director of a Research Institute with Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Dr Sharma was Vice President, International Commission on Water Quality (IAHS) from 2003 to 2011. He was ex-officio Advisor, Northeastern Council, Ministry of Home Affairs and is member and chairman of several international and national scientific societies and won many awards.

Abstract:

Strategies for improving phosphorus acquisition efficiency of potato (solanum tuberosum L.) genotypes on acid soils

Biography:

Elsayed A Omer has completed his PhD from Hokkaido University, Japan and Postdoctoral studies from Stanford University School of Medicine. He was the Former Head of Pharmaceuticals and Drug Industries Research Division and currently he is an Emeritus Professor of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, National Research Centre, Egypt. He has published more than 105 papers in reputed journals and had been the Chairman of two Conferences on the Pharmaceutical and Drug Researches in Egypt. He leaded several research projects on the medicinal and aromatic plants in Egypt and is the PI of “Preparation of the Egyptian Encyclopedia of Wild Medicinal Plants” project.

Abstract:

Elsayed A Omer has completed his PhD from Hokkaido University, Japan and Postdoctoral studies from Stanford University School of Medicine. He was the Former Head of Pharmaceuticals and Drug Industries Research Division and currently he is an Emeritus Professor of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, National Research Centre, Egypt. He has published more than 105 papers in reputed journals and had been the Chairman of two Conferences on the Pharmaceutical and Drug Researches in Egypt. He leaded several research projects on the medicinal and aromatic plants in Egypt and is the PI of “Preparation of the Egyptian Encyclopedia of Wild Medicinal Plants” project.

Biography:

Amaresh Chandra has completed his PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India and Postdoctoral studies from CSIRO, Australia and USDA-ARS, USA. He is the Head of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry Department at Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow, a premier institute of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India. He has published more than 100 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as associate editor of Acta Physiologiae Plantarum and consulting editor of SugarTech.

Abstract:

Sugarcane is a sucrose accumulating crop plant accounting for >70% of the world’s sugar supply. Even though it has been reported to have a bio-physiological limit to store up to 62% of dry weight and 25% of fresh weight of culm as sucrose, most commercial cultivars presently yield less sucrose, offering considerable scope to improve culm sucrose content. Uniquely, this crop possesses working source-sink systems, wherein the leaves constitute the ‘source’, while the growing stalk/culm also the major sucrose storage tissue, serves as ‘sink’ and tandem signaling between these tissues ultimately controls plant growth and sucrose accumulation. Sucrose synthesis/accumulation in sugarcane involves the complex interaction of many genes and regulatory sequences that control biochemical events in both source and sink tissues; some pivotal genes exhibited differential expression in both spatial and temporal manners. Expression of these genes was suppressed by enzyme inhibitors such as manganese chloride (Mn++), which led to decline in sucrose accumulation. Perturbation of source-sink communication achieved by application of GA3, resulted in improved sink strength and consequent redistribution of photosynthates. In comparison to control, the GA3 applied canes showed a prominent increase in internode length, brix%, pol% and a comparable decrease in reducing sugars due to increase in sink potential which lost effect over the period of three months after GA3 application. Differential gene expression patterns as observed with GA3 applications influence the source-sink communication exhibiting increased sink strength to retain more sucrose in culm tissues.

Biography:

Dr.Sk.Z.Ali has completed his Ph.D in Microbiology during 2011 at Osmania University and postdoctoral studies under UGC-Dr.D.S.Kothari Post-Doctoral Fellowship scheme. He is presently working as Assistant professor at Agri Biotech Foundation, an NGO to promote Agri Biotechnologies to benefit farmers. His research focus is on Plant-Microbe Interactions for alleviation of drought and heat stress effects in plants. Dr.Ali was awarded by Association of Microbiologists of India the “Young Scientist Award” in Agricultural Microbiology (2012) and also received SERB Young Scientist Project. Presently handling three research projects and published 15 research articles and two book chapters in well-reputed International and National peer reviewed journals.

Abstract:

Today, the most challenging task ahead of farmers, scientists, and policy makers is to produce enough food for a steadily increasing global population on a steadily decreasing area of arable land under the prospect of a more unpredictable environment as a result of the climate change. Drought is one of the major constraints on agricultural productivity worldwide and is likely to further increase. Worldwide extensive research is being carried out to develop strategies to cope with drought stress through development of drought tolerant varieties, shifting the crop calendars, resource management practices etc. and most of these technologies are cost-intensive. Recent studies indicate that microorganisms can also help plants to cope with abiotic stresses. Application of microorganisms together with novel technologies for their monitoring can contribute to solve food security issues in the changing climates. Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria fortify plants and reveal unexpected tolerance potentials and mechanisms in plants. Our work is focused on Pseudomonas putida, a soil bacterium that gives diverse benefits to an unlimited range of plants. P. putida is capable of promoting plant growth and also provides protection for the plant from pests and other harmful bacteria. Here we aim to study the effects of the association between P. putida strain FBKV2 and maize DHM 117 during water depletion by identifying the early molecular and biochemical responses of maize. Our data suggest that plants can be protected from inhibitory effects of the drought stress by the P. putida FBKV2, although the degree of protection depends on the type of the bacterial strain and the plant genotype.

Biography:

Songli Yuan has completed her PhD at the age of 29 years from Huazhong Agricultural Univrsity, China and worked as a visiting scholar in State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics, National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China during 2010.10-2011.02. She is responsible for the “Molecular physiology of soybean symbiotic nitrogen fixation” in Oil Crops Research Institute, CAAS, a premier Crop Innovation organization. She has published papers in Plant Physiology, New Phytologist, TAG, Plos One and so on.

Abstract:

The root nodule symbiosis (RNS) between legume plants and rhizobia is the most efficient and productive source of nitrogen fixation, and has critical importance in agriculture and mesology. Soybean (Glycine max), one of the most important legume crops in the world, normally establishes a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis with different types of rhizobia, and the efficiency of symbiotic nitrogen fixation in soybean by application of inoculants greatly depends on the symbiotic host-specificity. Surface polysaccharides, secretion proteins of the type-three secretion systems and nod factors are used by rhizobia to modulate host range, but the host control of nodulation specificity remains poorly understood. To study whether there are some “mark genes” for the identification of soybean responding to different species rhizobium or not, we tested the matching abilities between several main planting soybean varieties and 10 various high nodulation Rhizobia strains (8 of which originating from different locations in China and 2 from America), and finally we took two symbiotic systems: Bradyrhizobium japonicum strain 113-2- Soybean Tian long No.1 (Oil Crops Research Institute CAAS in China, can form RNS with all of the ten Rhizobium) and Sinorhizobium fredii USDA205- Soybean Tian long No.1, which possess notable different nodulation phenotypes, as research subjects and investigated their differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in soybean roots at 5 different post-inoculation time points using RNA-seq. The DEGs uncovered in this study provides molecular candidates for better understanding the mechanisms of symbiotic host-specificity and explaining the different symbiotic effects between soybean roots inoculated with different strains (113-2 and USDA205).

Biography:

Dr. Wouter L. Ballizany has completed his PhD Plant Science in 2012 from Lincoln University, New Zealand. He has published a number of papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an independent member of the Animal Ethics Committee of the University of Wollongong.

Abstract:

Molecular approaches in white clover breeding research have delivered parallel improvements in herbage yield and persistence, improvement of forage quality, utilisation of molecular markers in complex populations to implement selection indices, and abiotic stress tolerance toward utilisation in improved grasslands. Field and nursery-based studies have linked flavonoid metabolites to drought tolerance. Only 27 of 237 marker-trait associations (11%) were common to both water-limited and water-sufficient environments, confirming the existence of stress specific genotypic effects. One co-location was observed between quercetin glycosides and leaf size quantitative trait loci (QTL), whereas a number of biomass and flavonoid specific QTL were discovered, which can be considered as candidate genomic locations for explaining part of the variability of persistence related to leaf size and biomass in plants under stress. Several promising genetic regions were discovered in the parental ecotype “Tienshan” homoeologous groups with positive genotypic effects for important traits such as quercetin glycosides, biomass production, stolon density and leaf size, which is remarkable for such a small white clover ecotype. These results support the hypothesis that flavonoid metabolism provides valuable adaptive capacity for improving white clover responses to water deficit induced stress, and is largely independent of genetic factors controlling yield per se

Biography:

Mohsen Mohammadi has completed his PhD from University of Alberta and Postdoctoral studies from Canadian Government Laboratories in Ottawa, Canada and University of Minnesota in St Paul, USA. He leads Purdue’s Wheat Breeding and Genetics Program. He continues collaborating with the barley researchers in the US and tests barley adaptation and production to diversify Indiana’s cropping systems by bringing adapted barley varieties to the table. This will help family-based small businesses in grain industry and craft brewing using locally grown ingredients. Besides his research appointment, he teaches Genetics at undergraduate level and Quantitative Genetics at graduate level at Purdue Agronomy.

Abstract:

Improvement of quantitative traits depends highly on the right choice of parent combinations. The ability to predict parent combinations that produce high progeny means and high progeny variances improves the effectiveness of breeding cycles. PopVar is a tool that predicts population mean, genetic variance and the mean of superior progeny per cross single trait and also correlated responses for multiple traits. PopVar uses Stahl’s model of recombination to produce in silico recombinant inbred lines (RILs) per each cross using the genotype information of the respective parental lines. Then, a genome-wide prediction model, trained on a set of relevant germplasm and traits of interest is used to predict the breeding values of each simulated RIL within a cross. The predicted breeding values per cross are then used to calculate genetic parameters such as mean, variance and the mean of the superior tail of the population for each trait and co variations of trait pairs. We used a training population composed of 383 breeding lines, genotyped with 1142 SNP markers and phenotyped for yield and deoxynivalenol (DON) to demonstrate the utility of the PopVar procedure for each trait individually and for co variation of the two traits together. Our data established that population mean (mid-parent value) alone explained 82 and 88% of variation of the superior progeny mean for yield and DON, respectively and adding predicted population variance to the regression model increased R2 values to 99.5 and 99.6%, respectively. The results of correlated response revealed that although yield and DON are unfavorably correlated, the correlation was near zero or slightly negative in some simulated crosses, indicating the potential to increase yield while decreasing DON. Historical methods of parent selection strategies do not provide direct measures of variance. Rather, they either use genotype information irrespective of phenotype (genetic distance) or they use phenotypic distances irrespective of genotype information (phenotypic distance). In contrast, PopVar explicitly models segregation of the underlying genetic effects for a trait within a population. This work extends the current benefits of genomic selection to include the ability to design crosses that maximize genetic variance with more favorable correlations among traits. PopVar is available as an R package that researchers and breeders are encouraged to use for empirical evaluation of the methodology.

Biography:

Dr. D. M. Mannur has completed his Ph. D from BRA University Agra, UP (India). He has been serving under various capacities in University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur (India). Presently serving as project Director (Pulses), Agriculture Research Station, Kalburagi (India). During his tenure he has published more than 50 papers in reputed journals and developed various cultivars in chickpea and pigeonpea that have ruled the market and are popular in the farming community. He has been credited with developing first mechanical harvesting compatible chickpea variety (GBM-2) in India and various awards from the state and central organizations in India.

Abstract:

Chickpea is an important food legume cultivated and consumed across the Indian subcontinent. Fusarium wilt is the major constraint in chickpea production. The wilt race confined to Northern-Karnataka region is caused by soil borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris (foc 4). Thus marker assisted backcrossing (MABC) was attempted to introgress the foc 4 loci from WR-315 (wilt resistant) to elite cultivar Annegeri-1(A-1: wilt susceptible) (A-1 × WR-315). For MABC three markers TA96, TA27-F and TR19-V conferring the foc 4 loci were used in foreground selection. Background selection was employed using 40 SSR markers that were evenly distributed on to all the 8 LG of chickpea genome. After two backcrosses and two rounds selfing, 67 families were found to be resistant to wilt under wilt sick garden and possessed good background genome recovery (78.85 – 94.83 %). Of the 67 BC2F3 families top ten elite families with recurrent parent genome recovery of 91.07 – 94.83 % were selected. The selected lines were homozygous and stable. Stringent phenotypic evaluation of advanced lines of BC2F3 families in wilt sick garden could confirm resistance to fusarium wilt Race-4. These elite lines are being evaluated for yield and yield attributing traits in multi-location trails to identify the best possible line as compared to local check for release and general cultivation in Northern-Karnataka region. The present investigation was accomplished with speedy development of elite “Super Annigeri-1” cultivar resistant to fusarium wilt grain yield advantage that was otherwise susceptible, as early as in two backcrosses and selfing.

Biography:

Vinay Bhardwaj is currently the Senior General Manager-Research & Development, Reliance Industries Limited, India. He has worked at Algenol Headquarter in Florida, USA for technology transfer. Earlier he was the Breeding Lead of Research & Development in Ag giant multinational Monsanto. He has worked in various roles and capacities for 17 years at Monsanto. He has had a distinguished career in agricultural breeding and biotechnology. As an international researcher, he has a proven record of success in creating products solutions to drive market expansion and profitability through develop the innovative and value added products for key markets in India and other parts of Asia.

Abstract:

Novel breeding approaches are required to aid accelerate the rate of genetic gain to encounter the growing demand of food and spice crops in the face of less favorable and increasingly unpredictable environments. Genomic selection using whole-genome markers for breeding value predictions is an approach that can accelerate genetic gain through decreasing the breeding cycle time and increasing the selection intensity through larger populations. The integration of Eco physiological modeling and genomic prediction has the potential to enable more robust selection for a range of environments. Developing such approaches and making physiological measurements across the breadth of breeding programs will necessitate innovation and deployment of high-throughput phenotyping systems that can capture the temporal and spatial resolution needed to screen large sets of germplasm and build model parameters to integrate with genomic prediction.

Biography:

Ahmed Fawzy Elkot completed his PhD, at the age of 32 years from School of Agricultural biotechnology, PAU, Ludhiana, India (2015). Ahmed Fawzy Elkot awarded by ICAR international fellowship (2011) and DBT-TWAS post doctoral fellowship (2016) and it will be started in July 2016. Two research papers were published from his PhD work in two international journals; PLOS ONE and Theoretical and Applied Genetics (TAG) and third publication is under review. Now he works as researcher at Wheat Research Department, FCRI, and ARC and our group specializes in identifying, mapping and transferring of disease resistance genes of wheat include Rusts and powdery mildew.

Abstract:

Powdery mildew (PM), caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici, is one of the important wheat diseases, worldwide. Two PM resistance genes, designated as PmTb7A.1 and PmTb7A.2, were identified in T. boeoticum acc. pau5088 and mapped on chromosome 7AL approximately 48cM apart. Shotgun sequence assembly data for chromosome 7AL were utilised for fine mapping of these Pm resistance genes, two resistance genes analogue (RGA)-STS markers Ta7AL-4556232 and 7AL-4426363 were identified to be linked to the PmTb7A.1 and PmTb7A.2, at a distance of 0.6cM and 6.0cM, respectively. The two genes were transferred to T. aestivum using T. durum as bridging species. As many as 12,317 florets of F1 of the cross T. durum /T. boeoticum were pollinated with T. aestivum lines PBW343-IL and PBW621 to produce 61 and 65 seeds, respectively of three-way F1. The resulting F1s of the cross T. durum/T. boeoticum//T. aestivum, were screened with marker flanking both the PM resistance genes PmTb7A.1 and PmTb7A.2 (foreground selection) and the selected plants were backcrossed to generate BC1F1. Introgression of alien chromatin in BC2F1 plants varied from 15.4 - 62.9 per cent. Out of more than 110 BC2F1 plants showing introgression for markers linked to the two PM resistance genes, 40 agronomically desirable plants were selected for background selection.The BC2F2 plants homozygous for the two genes have been identified. The PM resistance gene PmTb7A.1 maps in a region very close Sr22, a stem rust resistance gene effective against the race Ug99. Analysis of selected plants with markers linked to Sr22 showed introgression of Sr22 from T. boeoticum in several BC2F1 plants. Thus, in addition to PM resistance these progeny might also carry resistance to stem rust race Ug99.

Biography:

Muniswamy S has completed his PhD with Gold Medal from University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur. He is a Scientist (Pigeon pea breeding) at Pulse Research Institute, Agricultural Research Station in India. He has published more than 15 papers in reputed journals and has released two promising pigeon pea varieties. He is involved in teaching and guiding of post graduate students, research and extension activities for the benefit of farmers.

Abstract:

An investigation was carried out using 191 mini core collections of pigeon pea along with 5 check varieties to know the genetic diversity at molecular level. Significant variation was observed by the way of analysis of variance for nine characters viz., days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, number of branches per plant, pod bearing length, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, seed yield per plant and hundred seed weight. Molecular diversity using 18 polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers divided genotypes into 15 clusters, of which ICP-11059 and AK-101 were solitary, indicating their distinctiveness among all genotypes. Similarly, BSMR-533, JKM-7, RVK-285, ICP-1126, ICP-348, ICP-6859 and ICP-7869 were found distinct among the genotypes. Geographical origin based diversity separated Indian and non-Indian genotypes. The Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) based dendrogram indicated distinctiveness of ICP-13633 and Bennur local, as they formed solitary cluster. The SSR marker CcM 602 could differentiate 4 genotypes at different base pair size and this can be used for identification and finger printing of genotypes. Validation of two Sequence Characterized Amplified Region (SCAR) markers viz., SCAR-704 (Fusarium wilt) and SCAR-N-18, (SMD) revealed significant association of SCAR-N-18 with Sterility Mosaic Disease (SMD). Morphological characterization differentiated ICP-7148 and GC-11-39 from rest of genotypes for determinate growth. Similarly, ICP-7148 and Gulyal (white) can be distinguished by oblong leaf shape.

Biography:

Saeed Rauf is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics. He works on the genetic improvement of forages crop for sustainable high forage yield. He has developed several maize lines and inter-sub-specific hybrids for commercial cultivation. He has published more than 30 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of repute.

Abstract:

Maize is an important forage and grain crop of the masses. Experiments were conducted to expand the yield potential of maize as forage crop and to increase the sustainability of yield due to biotic and abiotic stress. Results showed that maize subspecies (Zea mays spp., mexicana) has excellent potential to produce high biomass and forage yield. Unlike maize, teosinte demonstrated thermophilic properties namely lower heat injury, sustained chlorophyll content under heat stress (36-45° C) and high percentage seedling survival (at 55° C). Teosinte also had the ability to produce large plant biomass (27% and 55% higher yield than maize under non-stressed and stress conditions, respectively) and therefore could be exploited as a forage crop. Moreover inter sub-specific hybrids (F¬1) were developed to expand the forage yield potential and to incorporate species resistance against MSSB. There was a high percentage of heterosis in variable inter-specific crosses and traits and the presence of a high magnitude of over-dominance for many traits for example 5.93-7.06 for total biomass plant-1. Teosinte (‘PI566674’)×maize (‘Sargodha-2002’) crosses and three populations (F1, F2 and F3) were screened at various locations and in a contrasting artificial insect infestation experiment. Teosinte species ‘PI566674’, following screening was shown to be highly resistant to MSSB. The biomass of the F1 hybrid which was highly susceptible to MSSB was significantly reduced (P≤0.05) following infestation by MSSB in all experiments. The introgression from teosinte for genes conferring resistance to MSSB was screened in segregating F2 and F3 generations. Despite a susceptible F1 population, F2 was resistant to MSSB. Twenty new recombinant plants with resistance to MSSB and a high leaf soluble solid (16 °Brix) content were identified. They were selected to grow the F3 population. Mean values of F3 progenies showed similar resistance to the F2 population but a high percentage (60%) of resistant plants was recovered.

Biography:

Rakesh K Singh is a Rice Breeder in Plant Breeding Division at IRRI, Philippines. His expertise is on   breeding rice   varieties for  abiotic  stress tolerance with special reference to salt-affected soils ( saline and alkaline soils), as well as zinc deficient and iron toxic soils. He has completed his MSc and PhD degree from GB Pant University of  Agriculture  and Technology, Pantnagar, India and started his research career in 1986 as a Scientist at Central    Soil Salinity    Research  Institute (Indian Council of   Agricultural   Rese  arch), Karnal (India), where he strengthened the    rice breeding    program for salt-affected areas.  He has moved to IRRI Philippines in 2005 and led the salinity   breeding   group to developed salinity tolerant and first time multiple  stress tolerant (salinity+submergence tolerant)   rice genotypes   at IRRI using  molecular marker technology  that are released and/or under advance stage of testing for r elease in various south and SE Asian countries. He has published more than 75 papers in peer reviewed journals and guided ma ny MS and PhD students from India, Philippines, Myanmar, Iran, Burundi, Madagascar and Egypt. He is also serving as an Adjunct Associate Professor of  Plant Breeding  and Genetics at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, Philippines. 

Abstract:

    Rice     responds differentially at different stages of development.  The    seedling    and  reproductive stages are the most sensitive growth stages with very weak as sociation, suggesting that they are regulated by different processes and sets of    genes   /QTLs. There are hardly any studies exist on reproductive-stage salinity toleranc e mainly because of the lack of reliable reproductive-stage-specific    phenotyping    techniques and incomplete knowledge of the stage-specific mechanisms of salinity tolerance.Two major challe nges for screening exclusively for the reproductive stage are, 1) how to stress   plants   at the reproductive stage without stressing them at the  seedling  or late  vegeta  tive stage ; and 2) how to impose the stress on di  fferent  genotypes  or mapping populations at e quivalent growth stages of development because of the variability in the progression of growth rate through developmental stages. We standardise a methodology that allows salt     translocation     to the reproductive organs such as the flag leaf (the largest source for the sink) and panicle as quickly as possible just at the initiation of booting when the    genotypes    are at the same stage of tissue/organ development rather depending on age of the   plant  . A  mapping  population derived from CSR28/Sadri was used QTL identification using the novel  phenot ypin  g  technique and 6K illumina SNP platform. Salt stress equivalent to EC 10 dSm-1 was imposed on  rice plants  with trimmed leaves starting from boot leaf emergence up to 20 days in an experiment. Stage-specific effect of salt stress was verified by observing s alt-sensitive and salt-tolerant genotypes. Details will be presented.

Biography:

Jianlong Xu has obtained his PhD from Zhejiang University in China and his Postdoctoral career at PBGB Division of International   Rice Research   Institute (IRRI). He is major in  molecular designed  and genomic breeding of green super rice and has published more than 60  papers in reputed international journals, obtained eight patents and d eveloped ten rice varieties.

Abstract:

Low and unstable productivity from multiple   abiotic stresses   are characteristic in the rice production of most rainfed are as of Asia and Africa. In 2007, we initiated backcross (BC)  breeding  procedure for improving yield and tolerances to multiple  ab iotic  stresses. Using 8 BC1 populations derived from a widely adaptable and high yielding recipient and 8 donors plus two round s of phenotypic sele ction, we were able to develop 496 introgression lines (ILs) with significantly improved yields under drough t, salt and/or non-stress conditions. From these ILs, 6 new varieties were released for the rainfed and irrigated areas of Philippines and Pakistan and many more are in the pipeline to be released in several countries.  Genetic  characterization by SSR markers reveal three interesting aspects of donor introgression in the selected BC1F2 plants and BC1F3 lines: (1) introgression frequency in BC   progenies   was characteristic to specific crosses; (2) donor introgression at different   ge nomic regions   of the selected ILs varied considerabl y across the  genome  resulting at  lea st partially from strong selection for target traits; (3) there was greatly reduced  heterozygosity  in the selected BC progenies, particularly with selection under drought and salinit  y. The strong phenotypic selection for abiotic stress tolerances at early segregating generation appeared to offer major advantages over the conventional pedigree  breeding  approach by not only allowing one or more  a biotic  stress tolerances integrated into elite backgrounds, but being able to achieve quicker  homozygosity  in the selected  progenies . The trait specific ILs are good materials for discovery of  genes /QTL underlying the target and non-target traits and for highly ef ficient development of Green Super Rice by designed QTL pyram iding .

Biography:

Guangyuan Lu has completed his PhD at the age of 29 years from Huazhong   Agricultural   Univrsity, China and worked as a vis iting scholar in John Innes Centre, UK during 2013-2014. He is the group leader of ‘ rapeseed molecular breeding ’ section, Oil Crops Research Institute, CAAS, a premier Crop Innovation organizatio  n. He has published more than 43 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an reviewer of repute Molecular breeding 

Abstract:

The production of     oilseed rape    , a globally important oil    crop   , is tremendously limited by d rought stress. To cope with this issue, the breeding of new cultivars with improved ability to drought stress is of great interest. To this aim, we carried out experiment-1 to establish selection criteria for drought tolerance at differant developing stages. The impact of water deficit imposed at the    germination    stage or the reproductive stage on biological traits of 37   semi-winter rapeseed   cultivars were first analysed. The results showed that osmotic st ress induced by 14% polyethylene glycol (PEG-6000) had a substantial impact on  seed germination  and caused a significant reduction in plant growth and seed vigor. Relative wa  ter content was identified as a good indicator for early screening of drou  ght tolerance. At the reproductive stage, seed yield, 1000-seed weight, height of the first branch,    plant    height, and number of pods per   plant   were all markedly reduced under the exceptionally long (>100 d) and severe drought condition (a total of  162 mm precipitation during rapeseed life cycle, 52% reduced). Two of the top three tolerant   genotypes   at the  germination  stage were also shown to be tolerant based on drought susceptibili ty index of yield. Phenotypic corre  lation and path analysis were employed to rank the relative importance of other  agronomic traits  with regard to seed yield. The important contributors to seed yield under drought conditions, in descending order, were a s follows: 1000-seed weight, days to maturity, number of pods per     plant    , and plant height. By taking this concept in mind, we have recently bred a new drought-tolerant cultivar (YG85) that can be grown in the d rought-prone environments in the Northwest of China. To facilitate the    breeding    of drought tolerance with the aid of molecular markers, we conduct exp eriment-2 with a panel of 101 lines, which had previously been analyzed by RNA-Seq. The evaluation of drought tolerance at    seedling    stage resulted in the identification of 7 drought tolerant lines that could be incorporated into   breeding   programme. The ongoing  genome -wide Associative Transcriptomics analysis is expected to bring  about the discover of some candidate   genes underlining drought tolerance and the development of functional markers. 

Biography:

Hailing Jin is working as a Professor and as Director,    Genetics   ,   Genomics   and  Bioinformatics  Graduate  Program and also she is a Vice Cha ir to  Plant Pathology  & Microbiology Department for the U niversity of California. International experience includes various programs, contributions and participation in different countries for diverse fields of study and interests reflect in wide range of publications in various national and international journals

Abstract:

Small    RNAs    (sRNAs) are a class of short non coding r egulatory   RNAs   that are  present in almost all the   eukaryotes   and  mediate gene  silencing in a sequence specific ma nner. Studies from my l ab and others have shown that  plant endogenous sRNAs  play a critical role in host immune responses against pathogen attacks. We have also demonstrated  that some   sRNAs   from  eukaryotic  pathogens, such  as Botrytis cinerea, the fungal pathogen that causes grey mold disease on more than 200 plant species could be  translocated  into host plant cells. These sRNAs act as effector molecules to suppress host immunity genes for successful infection. This finding represented t he first example of naturally occurring Cross kingdom RNAi during the host pathogen interactions. Similar phenomenon was recently reported in mammalian system, where a gastrointestinal nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus, also delivers       sRNAs       to mammalian cells and target      host genes      involved in     innate immunity    . Thus, Cross kingdom    RNAi    was used as an   aggressive virulence mechanism by both    plant    and animal   pathogens   and pests. Furthermore, we have found that   t ra nsgenic plants   th at expressing  sRNAs  that targetin g fungus Botrytis Dicer like  genes  could effectively block the generation of sRNA ef  fectors and suppress disease symptom. These results suggest that sRNA trafficking is bidirectional; sRNAs could be also transferred from the host plants to the interacting pathogens.

Biography:

S YANG has completed her PhD from Charles Stuart University, Australia. She has been an Associate Professor at Guangxi Academy of    Agricultural    Sciences, China until 2009. Currently she is a Research officer at School of   Agriculture  , Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide, Australia. Her major research work on the  germplasm evaluation , grain legume crops breeding and m   olecular marker, herbicide selection and genomic study. She have published with Colleagues in two book chapters; 30 refereed journal papers.

Abstract:

Faba bean (Vicia faba ) is one of the important      grain legume crops      worldwide, which is c ommonly consumed as human food and animal feed. Faba bean (2n=12)     genome     is approximately 13.4Gb, the largest    genome    in the    grain legume f  amily   . The faba bean seeds size is the biggest one in all of  the   grain crops  . Our  study applying   RNA-Seq technology    to construct the first faba bean  genome  de novo assembling. There was a t  otal nu  mber of  47621 All-Unigene discovered in    faba bean    seeds by   RNA –Sequence  , length 27605508bp. And then investigate d the faba bean seed   genes function   expression profile on comparison of the following traits : Hydration Index, Rust resistance,  photoperiod  response, seed staining and Ascochy  ta Blight pathogen resistance. 

Biography:

Gefu Wang-Pruski received her Ph.D. from University of Alberta in Canada and completed her postdoc from Loma Linda University in Southern California. She has over 30 years research experience, currently a full professor at Dalhousie University. Dr. Wang-Pruski has been leading over 20 national and international research programs in the past 15 years and generated over 50 peer-reviewed publications. She has been serving as an editorial board member for many journals.

Abstract:

Late blight is the most    devastating disease   in   potato production    around the world. It is caused by   Phytophthora infestans   which mutates rapidly. Renewed control strategies aimed at higher efficiency and lower environmental impact are urgently required. Research carried out for a decade in our laboratories demonstrated tha t we can prime  potato plants  to boost dive rse defense functions against  Phytophthora infestans . Priming could reduce the use of fungicides and pesticides and ensure the protection of human h ealth and the environment. In this talk, I will present our knowledge about the molecular mechanisms of priming against P. infestans based on our studies using pr oteomics, metabolomics and gene expression profiling tools .

Biography:

You-Zhi Li is a Professor at the College of Life Science and    Technology   , Guangxi University, China. He has obtained his PhD degree in   Microbiology   from the Huazhong  Agriculture  University and Master’s degree in  Plant   Pathology  from the No rth West Agriculture and Fore stry University (formerly named Northwestern Agricultural University). His rese arch interests are very broad but the focus is on maize environmental adaptability. He is currently servi ng as the Associate Dean of the College of Life Science and Technology as well as a Principle Investigator of the State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-bioresources, Guangxi University. 

Abstract:

Response of maize to      photoperiods      affects adaption of this     crop     to environments. Sensitivity tow ards     photoperiod     changes has limited integration of tropica l and temperate    maize    germplasm into  existing breeding programs. We characterize the    phenotypes    of four temperate-adapted maize foundation parents, Huangzao 4, Chang 7-2, Ye 478 and Zheng 58  and two    tropically-adapted maize    foundation parents, M9 and Shuang M9 throughout the gr owth stage under three constant   photoperiod   regimes in a daily cycle of 24  h at 28º C and analyzed expression of 48 photoperiod response-  associated genes  . Consequently, long  photoperiod  (LP) repressed development of the tassels of photoperiod-sensitive maize line s at V9 stage and caused subsequent failure in flowe ring; Failure of  photoperiod -sensitive maize lines in flowering under LP was associated with lower expr ession of flowering-related genes; Photoperiod changes could  make a marked impact on spatial layout of maize inflorescence. The larger oscillation amplitude of expression of photoperiod-responsive genes occurred in LP-sensitive maize lines. In conclusion, failure in development of tassels at V9 stage under LP is an early indicator for judging   photoperiod sensitivi ty  . The adaptation o f  temperate-adapted maize  l i nes to LP is due to the better coordination of  expression  among photoperiod-sensing genes instead of the   loss of the genes. High photoperiod sensitivity of maize is due to high expression of circadian rhythm-responding genes improperly early  in the light.

Biography:

Andrzej Wasiak has completed his MS in 1961 in Chemistry (X-ray Crystallography) from Polish Academy of Sciences, PhD in 1974 in Technical Sciences/Polymer Physics, DSc in Materials Science (2000) from the University of Warsaw, Poland. He has also worked at Research Institute of General Chemistry in Warsaw (1964-67), Institute of Fundamental Technological Research (1968-2000). Since 2000, he is a Professor at Bialystok Technical University and Visiting Scientist at the University Massachusetts, USA, Kyoto University, Japan, the University of Duisburg and also a Fellow of the Committee of Production Engineering Polish Academy of Sciences. His scientific interest includes experimental studies and mathematical modeling of transitions occurring in technological processes like energy demand, material’s structure formation, etc.

Abstract:

During recent years biomass become considered as a resource that should satisfy various needs of human society. The food, construction materials as well as energy are supposed to be harvested from this resource. Obviously not total demand can be covered basing only on   biomass  , but its  contribution is expected to increase. It is worth, therefore, to estimate limits of this growth, as well as factors determining those limits. The present paper is confined to the analysis of biomass as a source of energy. The main task is to estimate energetic efficiency of  agricultural  processes. The energetic efficiency is understood as the ratio of the amount of energy obtained from biofuels, produced basing on crops from particular region, to energy inputs required to facilitate all subsidiary processes assuring functioning of production processes. Base  d upon earlier works conducted by the present author, the mathematical model of energy efficiency of biofuel production is extended to more general form aiming to describe the effects of exclusion of a fraction of crops from food production towards biofuel production. The derived model gives quantitative relations between energy efficiency of sc. “energetic plantations”, energetic efficiency of industrial biofuel processing plants and energy demand of other types of  agricultural  production. Investigation s are aimed towards determination of the role of biomass as a source of energy and the possibility of ass uring energetic self-sufficiency of agriculture, as well as its effec  t on global energy demand. The potential role of modern biotechnology applied to “energetic” biomass production is also considered.

Biography:

Thomas Orton is currently working in Rutgers University, USA

Abstract:

Evidence that genes exist in cultivated tomato germplasm that promote outc rossing was obtained during the course of a traditional breeding program, specifically the recapitulation of the iconic  variety ‘Rutgers’. This open-pollinated variety was bred during 1926-1932 and released publically in 1934. Following an impressive run as an enormously popular world-wide fresh market and processing variety in  the mid-10th century, ‘Rutgers’ was rendered obsolete by emerging F1 hybrid varieties and new processing methods and varieties. We (Rutgers University and the Campbell Soup Co.) sought to recapitulate an updated version of ‘Rutgers’ starting in 2010, using the same general approach (modified pedigree program) as the original 1934 release that culminated in the development of ‘Rutgers 250’, an open-pollinated garden variety released in 2016. The new variety possesses vine and fruit attributes that transcend the range embodied by the seminal parents, ‘JTD’ and ‘Marglobe’ (both prominent heirloom varieties from the early 20th century). When we contrasted ‘Rutgers 250’ with the parents with respect to   SSR genotypes  , we discovered many non-parental configurations and hypothesized that an outcrossing event occurred at or about the F2 that introduced some of the  genes  that were selected during the breeding program and present in the finished variety. We discovered in 2015 that the parental variety ‘JTD’ exhibited exerted stigmas, a trait common to wild out crossing populations, while flowers of ‘Marglobe’ wer e inserted. All F1 individuals were exerted, suggesting the presence of dominant allele interaction. The F2 is currently under study. The total array of   breeding  germplasm  in our program was subsequently screened for presence of exerted stigmas. Nine of 165 populations grown out in summer 2015 exhibited flowers with at least 50% e xerted stigmas, or 5.45%. Most others were totally devoid of exerted stigmas. This strongly suggests that genes that profoundly affect mating system may be present in tomato breeding programs and that the presumption of autogamy should be verified before and during breeding efforts that include uncontrolled mating.

Biography:

Dr. Agustin B. Molina, was Senior Scientist and Regional Coordinator for Asia of Bioversity International since 1998, and currently Honorary Research Fellow and Acting Regional Coordinator after his retirement in 2014. He spent more than 15 years of research on banana Fusarium Wilt with regional partners in the Banana Asia Pacific Network. His career transcended the academe, industry and international R&D. He was Plant Pathologist/Director of Research of Chiquita Brands Inc in Central America for 10 years; former professor and Chair of Department of  Plant Pathology  at University of the Philippines, Los Banos. He obtained his PhD degree in Plant Pathology at Pennsylvania State University in 1983. He has published and presented many papers in his field. 

Abstract:

Musa cultivars of different     genomic     groups were tested in the field and screenhouse against Foc strains. Three Vegetatively Compatible Groups (VCGs) namely, VCG 1213/16 (Foc TR4 strain), VCG 0123, and VCG 0126 were tested against 5 banana cultivars. Resis tance was assessed on incidence of    plants    showing external symptoms and inte rnal vascular discoloration index. Results showed that common commercial Cavendish (AAA) and local cultivar Lakatan (AAA) were su sceptible to VCG 1213/16 but resistant to VCG 0123 and VCG 0126 . On the other hand a local cultivar Cardaba (BBB) was resistant to VCG1213/16 but susceptible to VCG 0126 (Race 1 strain). This indicates a variety by Foc strain interaction. Results of field trials where more varieties were assessed against VCG1213/16, showed that    genomic    constitution based on balbisiana or   acuminata  , in  diploid  or triploid forms were  not clearly related to  resistance nor susceptibility to Foc TR4. Some AA diploids were highly resistant while some were susceptible. Similarly AAA, AAB, and ABB triploids responded differently to Foc TR4 in the field. While VCG 1213/16 is highly vir  ulent to many commercial cultivars, several cultivars were highly resistant. The variety by strain interaction is contrary to earlier belief that varieties susceptible to Race 1 strain is also susceptible to Race 4, pointing to the deficiency of the old Race classification system. This underscores the importance of more studies to understand field resistance of the many banana cultivars in relation to different Foc strains in different agroecosystem for practical purposes. 

Biography:

Professor Yiji Xia is Professor and Head of Department of  Biology  at Hong Kong Baptist University. He received his PhD degree in Genetics from Iowa State University in 1997 and was a joint postdoctoral  associate at Salk Institute/Noble Foundation from 1997 to 1999. After working at Akkadix Corporation (San Diego, USA) as a senior scientist from 2000 to 2001, he joined Danforth Plant Science Center (St. Louis, USA) as Principal Investigator. Since 2009, he has been working at HKBU. Prof. Xia has published over 40 research articles in Nature, EMBO Journal, EMBO Reports,  Plant Cell , PNAS, and other journals, with a total citation count of over 4,900. Prof. Xia’s ma in research focus is on plant stress responses, particularly on redox  sensing and   epige netic    and  transcriptional regulation  in r esponse to  biotic  and abiotic stress.  

Abstract:

A common physiological response to various environmental stresses in   plants   is accumu lation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS can cause oxidative damage to  macro biomolecules . On the other hand, ROS have increasingly been recognized as important reg ulators in  physiological  and developmental pathways. ROS signaling  is mediated largely through actions on redox-sensitive proteins that undergo oxidative modifications in response to perturbation of cellular redox states. We have developed gel-based and gel-free (OxiTRAQ) quan titative redox proteomics methods to identify    Arabidopsis    proteins whose thiols underwent oxidative modifications in response to treatments of ROS and the defense elicitors (salicylate and flagellin). The redox-sensitive proteins are involved in a variety of biological processes inc luding chromatin remodeling and   transcription  ,  mRNA processing ,  post-translat  ional modifications  and primary and secondary metabolism. A re dox-sensitive bZIP transcription factor in Arabidop sis has been found to act as a redox sensor and mediate expression of oxidative stress responsive genes through its  oxidation/reduction. Our progresses in developing redox proteomics methods and in character izing the role of the transcription factor in redox sensing and stress responses will be presented.

Biography:

Rakesh K Srivastava obtained his Ph.D. from the Indian       Agricultural       Research Ins titute (IARI) New Delhi, India. He currently leads the pearl millet      genomics      team at ICRISAT. He is extensively involved in generation of vario us      genetic      and     genomic     resources , mining,     mapping     and deployment of QTLs/g enes for various    biotic   ,   abiotic  , grain   and fodder quality traits in collaboration with the National   Agricultural    Research System (NARS) in pearl millet. He ha s contributed significantly towards the international whole   genome   sequencing for pearl millet involving world reference  germplasm  and entire association mapping panel. He is actively involved in   various capacity building programs for NARS.

Abstract:

Pearl millet is one of the most climate resilient   cereals  . It i s grown in marginal and dry areas of the world with poor  soil fertility , low moisture holding capacity in subsistence  agricultur e . It forms  critical food,  nutrition and livelihood support for the millions of poor living in Africa, Asia and other parts of the world. P earl millet is one of the cereals which received poor   attention towards generation of  genetic  and genomic resources in the past. However, lately  a lot of efforts have been made in trait discovery, mapping and deployment of some key traits. One successful example is HHB 67 Improved, which is the first marker-assisted breeding product in India, and is gown in more than 750,000 ha every year. In pearl millet more than 20 pairs of    mapping    population have been generated, segregating for an array of traits of  economic interest. In addition, a world association   mapping   panel called PMiGAP,  chromosome  segment substitution   lines (CSSLs), TILLING population have been developed. Recently, at ICRISAT the  whole genome sequencing  of a pearl millet reference line Tift23D2B1P1-P5 has been completed, along with re-sequencing of about 1,000 a ccessions consisting of wild and cultivated  germplasm  and breeding lines. By virtue of available genetic maps, QTL locati ons and effects, the pearl millet community is strongly placed for mining    genes    and gene networks for an array of traits. The   genome sequence   will help us utilize various reverse  genetics  tools, carry our genome-wide ass   ociation studies (GWAS), genomic selection (GS) leading to efficient cultivar development.

Biography:

Zhi Min Yang, Professor of     Plant Physiology     and    Molecular Biology    in Nanjing   Agricultural   University (NAU).   He earned his PhD degree at NAU in 1999, and received his postdoctoral training at the University of Kagawa, Japan and Justus-Liebig University, Germany. He is working on physiological and molecular mechanisms for   plant abiotic stress   responses (salt, drought or heavy metals). Epigenetic regulation of stress tolerance, toxic metal uptake and accumulation in plants through small/long non-coding  RNAs  (e.g. microRNAs) and DNA methylation is currently major interest. He published 80 peer-reviewed papers and serves as associate/academic editors of  Gene ,  Plant Gene  and PloS One.   

Abstract:

Plant exposure to cadmium (Cd) affects       transcriptional       responses. Whether  Cd-modified DNA methylation marks are associated with      transcription      and functional consequences in     plants     remains unknown  . We present the     genome    -wide single-base-resolut ion maps of methylated    cytosine   s in Cd-exposed rice, a long with global    transcriptional    change in   mRNA  . Widespread differences were    identified in the composition and patterning of CG and non-CG methylation marks between Cd-exposed and control   rice genomes  . There are 2393 non-redundant differentially-methylated regions ( DMRs ). RNA-sequencing revealed that most of DNA methyltransferases, histone methyltransfera ses and DNA demethylases differentia lly changed in transcription under Cd exposure. By profiling global DNA methylation and     gene transcription    , we found more    genes    hypermethylated than those hypomethylated in CG, CHH and CHG (where H is A, C or T) contexts in the regio ns of upstream, genebody and downstream under Cd stress. Seventy-nine    genes    (p < 0.05, two-fold  change) with a strong preference of differential expression in Cd-exposed   rice plants   was identified. Many of them were involved in stress response, metal trans port, and   transcription   factors. A subset of loss of functio n mutants defective in  DNA  methylation/demethylat ion and histone modification activities were used to identify  transcript  abundance of selected genes. In most cases,   genes   in the mutants were repressed by Cd treatment.    Provision of azacitidine (a global DNA methylation inhibitor) attenuated root growth inhibition, but promoted   biomass   and Cd accumulation under Cd exposure. Finally, we identified 108  transposons  and 254 retrotransposons that were modificed by methylation, where transcriptional expressions of 30 n eighboring gen es were changed under Cd exposure.

Biography:

Frank-Holm Roegner is a German Physicist. He is graduated in Physics in the year 1988. He is working as a Head of the Department for e-processing in Fraunhofer Institute Electron Beam and Plasma Technology. He is working as a Member of iiA and RADTech-Europe, Founder member of Fraunhofer Cleaning  Technology  Alliance since 2002, and leading referent for an annual course, "Cleaning Technology for industrial Production". 

Abstract:

Providing the world´s growing population with nutritious food is an enormous challenge, that solution starts very early in food production. Beside the known chemical  seed dressing  there is another way for killing pathogens. This environmental friendly, purely physical disinfection of seed, bases on the biocidal effect of accelerated electrons. The Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Elect ron Beam and Plasma Technology (FEP) developed the basics for this technology years ago. Electrons are a versatile tool for numerous applications in all fields of industry. Beside the known and well established processes in medicine and pharma, the electron treatment of seed became more and more important. Accelerated electrons are characterized by their kinetic energy. When these electrons penetrate matter, they are acting by losing their energy through collision processes. Once the energy is spent, they do not penetrate further into the material. This fact is used to control the sphere of action of electron treatment precisely. This method can be used to apply an even dose on all sides of the individual seed grains. Electrons only penetrate into the seed coat far from the embryo and the  endosperm  to avoid genetic changes. Harmful organisms hit by a sufficient dose of accelerated electrons will be killed or inactivated. In testing series the chemical seed dressing, as the state of the art process for winter wheat treatment, is used as 100% standard. There is a slight increase of grain yield and a significant increase of emergence for electron treated seed on average over long period. The reason for this behavior is a non-selective effect of physical treatment methods. Thereby the treatment is able to eliminate all pathogens on and inside the seed coat. Due to the advantages for farmers, producers and the environment the companies CERAVIS and BayWa could sell more than 15.000 tons of electron-treated cereal seeds within 2015 with upward tendency. 

Biography:

Soumitra Paul is an Assistant Professor of   Botany   at Kaliganj Government College, Kaliganj,  Nadia, West Bengal, India. He is a Doctorate in  Botany  (PhD) from University of Calcutta, India. He has  8 years of research experience on  Crop Molecular Biology  and Biotechnology and has published several papers in renowned internation al peer-reviewed journals. He is an Editorial Board Member and Reviewer of different journals such as Frontiers in Plant  Science, Rice and African Journal of Biotechnology etc

Abstract:

Food security is a major challenging issue in developing countries like India where rice is the    staple crop   .   Abiotic stress   like drought affe cts most of the  rice production  in India. The ge neration of drought tolerant rice cultiva r by overexpression AtDREB1A is an important breakthrough in   biotechnology   resear ch. In addition, rice contains very little amount of iron and zinc in the  edible endosperm . Therefore, biofortification of these two micronutrients in rice grains i  s believed to be the most promising strategy for enhancing mineral nutrition in diets. The bioengineered high iron rice grain has already been developed by overexpression of soybean and rice endogenou s ferritin genes. Low phytate rice grain by   RNAi   mediated silencing of phytic acid biosynthesis also facilitates iron accumulation in milled rice grain. However, the molecula r signaling network operating in  transgenic crops  still remains unclear. In our cu rrent study, we performed the  proteomic  analysis of DREB1A over expressin g drought tolerant rice cultivars. The proteome profile of rice roots revealed metabol ic alteration in energy and carbohydrate metabolism. A novel r40c1 protein species has been identified which play a cruc ial role in DREB1A mediated drought tolerance. Recently, the role of  miRNAs  in iron transport has been deciphered in transgenic ferritin over expressing rice plants which unravel the molecular mechanism  of iron loading in high iron rice grains. Four novel miRNAs targeting NRAMP4 has been considered for enhancement of iron loading in transgenic rice plants.

Biography:

Riddhi Datta is a Gold-medallist in Botany in Under-graduate as well as Post-graduate courses from University of Calcutta, India. She has been working in the field of Glutathione and its role in plant defense since 2011 and has recently submitted her PhD thesis from CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, India. She has published 14 papers in reputed international journals. At present she is an Assistant Professor in Botany, Govt. General Degree College, New Town, India and a Visiting faculty in the Post-graduate department of Botany, Barasat Govt. College, India.

Abstract:

Plant defense is regulated by a network of signaling pathways where salicylate, jasmonate and ethylene (ET) function as key signaling molecules. Glutathione (GSH) is gradually gaining importance as a dynamic player in this network playing critical roles during stress. We have earlier reported that enhanced GSH level can provide resistance against Botrytis cinerea infection presumably through its crosstalk with ET. In this study, we demonstrate that GSH induces ET biosynthesis by modulating the  transcriptional  and post-trancriptional regulations of its key enzymes, ACC synthase (ACS) and ACC oxidase (ACO). Transgenic Arabidopsis plants with enhanced GSH content exhibited remarkable up-regulation of ACS2, ACS6 and ACO1 at transcript as well as protein levels while they were down-regulated in the GSH depleted pad2-1 mutant. We further observed that GSH induced ACS2 and ACS6 transcription in a WRKY33 dependent manner while ACO1 transcription remained unaffected. On the other hand, the mRNA stability for ACO1 was found to be increased by GSH which expla ins our above observations. In addition, we also identified the ACO1 protein to be a subject for S-glutathionylation which is consistent. However, S-glutathionylation of ACS2 and ACS6 proteins was not detected. Further, the transgenic plants exhibited resistance to necrotrophic infection and salt stress while the pad2-1 mutant was sensitive. Exogenous GSH improved stress tolerance in wild-type plants but not in the ET signaling mutant, ein2-1, indicating that GSH mediated resistance to these stresses occurs via an ET mediated pathway. Together, our investigation reveals a dual-level regulation of ET biosynthesis by GSH during stress.

Biography:

Dr. Alka Vasan has completed her PhD in Foods and Nutrition from CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India with her research focus on Study of Processing of Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Genotypes and its effect on Barley’s nutritional composition. Having worked with researchers of such high repute, she is now set to work towards development of innovation in value addition of the crop and her experiences learnt during her research have made her get her work published both nationally and internationally. Her publications include eleven papers, four book chapters and a couple of paper & poster presentations in India and abroad.

Abstract:

Barley (Hordeum vulgare vulgare L.) is an important cereal grain of semiarid regions globally due to its nutritional value. The present investigation was carried out to evaluate the nutrient composition and effect of processing on four new barley genotypes viz. BH- 942, BH- 952, BH-933 and BH-946. The results revealed that BH-94 had higher crude fiber (4.25%) and crude protein (12.39%) content. The total soluble sugars, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars, starch and dietary fiber content of barley genotypes ranged from 3.29 to 3.48, 0.55 to 0.62, 2.67 to 2.91, 57.27 to 58.57, 12.45 to 13.48 per cent, respectively. The availability of minerals and in-vitro digestibilities were also higher in barley genotype BH-942, but had lower antinutrients. Malting not only increased the protein and crude fiber content, but also sugars, minerals and in-vitro digestibilities for protein and starch, with the highest increase in BH-942 and BH-946, whereas it reduced the crude fat, ash, starch and antinutrients content in all genotypes. Genetic variability among four barley genotypes can be enhanced through recombination to enhance accumulation of essential minerals; synthesis of precursors of vitamins; modified quantities and qualities of starch, proteins and fats in improving human health and nutrition through efficient phenotypic screens and genotypic markers. QTLs and genes for above stated traits have been identified and mapped on various barley chromosomes for incorporation into breeding programmes using molecular marker based selection for further improvement and development of new barley varieties combing useful traits for the benefit of farmers, processors and human health.

Biography:

Allison Frederick is an intellectual property & innovation manager who is completing her master's degree at Harvard University in environmental management and sustainability. She is the author of the only non-attorney horticulture intellectual property book called: Poof!   Plant   Profits in Peril: A Patent and Trademark Storybook. As the owner of GRIPS, LLC – GreenHouse Intellectual Property Systems, Allison has managed large horticulture companies and their international fruit and vegetable portfolios, guided individual  breeders  on developing a trademark strategy, and worked with biofuel companies to protect their hybrids  

Abstract:

As an innovator and problem solver you likely detest the paperwork associated with research and inventing. Instead you'd rather be in the lab or field conducting experiments and doing the exciting part of your work. In addition, the grant application process along with the effort to get published absorbs valuable time. On top of it all there is still one category of paperwork essential to a successful, sustainable research program. This extra layer is called intellectual property ("IP") management, and it includes legal filings for patents, trademarks, trade secrets, material transfer agreements, plant-breeder rights applications, etc. For many scientists this is the most complicated and expensive component of innovation. Even in working with attorneys and technology transfer centres, there is still a lot of work to be completed by the scientist. The legal side of inventing does not have to be difficult and by creating a Strategic Innovation Plan, like a research plan, you can employ step-by-step algorithms for successfully protecting your inventions and developments. This talk will help you understand how to design a Strategic Innovation Plan by demystifying the different types of legal protection for varieties and  plant genetics  and deciding when to use certain types of protection. A Strategic Innovation Plan requires teamwork and we'll discuss how to strengthen relationships with your technology transfer centres and attorneys. For the entrepreneur, we'll examine the current trends in the marketplace in order to position your inventions for a start-up and meet venture capital expectations. 

Biography:

USDA-ARS Plant Science Research Laboratory and Oklahoma State University, USA

Abstract:

Plant diseases and insect pests are the important threats to agricultural production, and crop losses to diseases and insects can be greater than ~30% of the annual global production. Managing the health of crop plants to assure sustainable agricultural production can be very challenging. However, rapid advances in plant genomics are evolving our ability to analyze plant-pest interactions for a better understanding how host plants defend themselves against those attackers. In recent years, we have been developing and applying these sophisticated genomic tools to examine interactions between crop plants and pests to elucidate the genetic mechanisms of plant resistance and to fill the gap existing between genotype and phenotype of crop plants. Furthermore, the rapid development of high-throughput technologies and the availability of immense amount of genomic and genetic data will provide system approaches for understanding and solving the remaining questions on host plant defense against attacking pests. This presentation reports the recent findings in the above-mentioned research and demonstrates how genomics approaches can facilitate both the identification and use of resistance genes to diseases and insect pests and the development of novel resistant hybrids and varieties to achieve environmentally friendly crop protection and sustainable crop production.

Biography:

Dr. Bushra Hafeez Kiani has completed her PhD at the age of 28 years from Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan in Biochmistry. Plant Molecular Biologist with 6 years national, international research experience in Plant Biochemistry and plant Molecular biology. Areas of specialization, Plant biotechnology, genetic transformation of plants with different transformation procedures, Lab-work experience in all molecular biology techniques, also interested in several bench top bioassays to determine the biological and phytochemical activities of secondary metabolites isolated from plants, analysis of metabolic pathways in plants and DNA sequencing of plants. Currently, she is working as an assistant professor in the department of Biotechniology, Women University of AJ&K, Pakistan.

Abstract:

The rol ABC genes have been shown to enhance production of secondary metabolites in plants, possibly through stimulation of the defense pathway. This report examines the effect of transformation of A. annua with the rol ABC genes expressing in A. tumefaciens and A. rhizogenes. The artemisinin content, trichome density and expression of key genes in the biosynthetic pathway of artemisinin were measured. Artemisinin content was significantly increased in transformed material of both Artemisia species when compared to un-transformed plants. The artemisinin content within leaves of transformed lines was increased by a factor of ten, indicating that the plant is capable of synthesizing much higher amounts than has been achieved so far through traditional breeding. Expression of all artemisinin biosynthesis genes was significantly increased, although variation between the genes was observed. Cytochrome P450 (CYP71AV1) and aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) expression levels were higher than that of amorpha-4, 11 diene synthase (ADS). Levels of the trichome development and sesquiterpenoid biosynthetic gene (TFAR1) expression were also increased in all transgenic lines. Trichome density was also significantly increased in the leaves of transformed plants, but no trichomes were found in control roots or transformed roots. The detection of significantly raised levels of expression of the genes involved in artemisinin biosynthesis in transformed roots correlated with the production of significant amounts of artemisinin in these tissues. This suggests that synthesis is occurring in tissues other than the trichomes which contradict previous theories. This elucidation will help to increase production to meet the increasing demand of artemisinin because of its pharmacological importance.

Biography:

Faheem Ahmad graduated in the field of Biological Sciences with PhD degree in 2013 from The University of Queensland, Australia (http://www.uq.edu.au). His core competencies are in the field of Ecology especially in Insect – Fungal Associations in stored grain ecosystem, Insect Behaviors and Population Dynamics with referenced to crop protection. This field has a great potential for local agriculture and grain storage industry as well as for foreign exports. He started his professional career as Agriculture Officer in the Department of Agriculture Extension and Adaptive Research, Government of Punjab, Pakistan. Later, he opted for the field of Research and Development and worked as Technical Development Officer in Syngenta Pakistan Ltd. Followed by R&D career in a multinational company providing services on High Efficiency Irrigation Systems.

Abstract:

Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) is one of the major pests of stored grains. Due to export legislation for insect free trade, extensive use of synthetic insecticides is in practice. The residual persistence of chemical insecticides in food commodities, their detrimental effects on non-target species and environmental hazards, and above all resistance development in stored grain pests encourages evaluating alternative control methods. In this study we have compared bio-efficacy of common herb species including Allium sativum (Alliaceae), Zingiber officinale (Zingiberaceae), Cymbopogon citratus (Gramineae) and Azadirachta indica (Meliaceae) against T. castaneum infesting stored commodities. The results have suggested that A. sativum (garlic) and Z. officinale (ginger) are effective against T. castaneum in terms of adult mortality and controlling weight losses. However, A. indica (neem) proved to be more effective against the beetles when used in flour form of resources. Data on the number of larvae, pupae and adult T. castaneum revealed that neem seeds and eucalyptus leaves were most effective against T. castaneum followed by that of tobacco. A subsequent experiment was conducted to study the dose response of neem seed powder against the beetle pests. The results of this study clearly suggest that use of botanicals in stored product pest management to supplement the success of whole system.

Biography:

University of Cambridge, UK

Abstract:

The aim of this research was to evaluate the properties and benefits of using an organo-zeolitic fertilizer (bio-fertilizer) for the production of biofuel and or food crops on contaminated and marginal land. Apart from the ever increasing cost of chemical fertilizers their use, over the last seventy or more years, has had a deleterious effect on soil health, (Ball, 2006). In contrast the bio-fertilizer, composed of organic waste and crushed zeolitic rock containing Clinoptilolite and commonly Mordenite zeolite, functions biologically in sponsoring nitrification. Ammonium ions, provided from the degradation of the organic component, are adsorbed to the zeolite mineral surface thus avoiding loss to the atmosphere by volatilization. On addition of the bio-fertilizer to soil oxidation of the ammonium ions, by soil nitrifying micro-organisms, provides major and trace element plant nutrients. Analysis of pore water, from substrates amended with the bio-fertilizer, has shown that its electrical conductivity is orders of magnitude higher than that of pore water from un-treated substrates. This is reflected in the high cationic mobility of the pore water, covering a wide range of elements, in ionic form, providing essential major and beneficial trace-elements that are directly available for plant uptake. Further work has shown that without the organic component the degree of plant growth is greatly reduced and the converse applies in that the application of the organic waste without the crushed zeolitic rock, again produces less growth. Many countries in the world have extensive deposits of zeolitic sediment, containing a high abundance of zeolite minerals, and the organic component, being animal or plant waste, is readily available.

Biography:

Rudy Dolferus has completed his PhD at Free University of Brussels and he is currently a Team Leader at CSIRO Agriculture in Canberra, Australia. His main research interest is in the molecular physiology and genetics of abiotic stress tolerance in cereals (wheat).

Abstract:

Limited water availability during the reproductive stage reduces fertility and affects grain yield of wheat crops. The young microspore (YM) stage is particularly sensitive to water stress, causing pollen abortion and reduced spike grain number. Changing rainfall patterns as a result of climate change will negatively impact on crop yields in the future, necessitating breeding of wheat varieties with improved tolerance to drought and other abiotic stresses. Soil drought treatments are notoriously difficult to control. We therefore developed a controlled environment phenotyping method based on YM hyper sensitivity to drought stress but using osmotic stress and hydroponics as a surrogate for drought stress. NaCl was used as osmoticum and the use of hydroponics enabled us to accurately control timing, duration and severity of the stress treatments. Two major QTL associated with maintenance of spike grain number under osmotic stress conditions (SGNO), SGNO-5A.1 and SGNO-7A, were identified using a Cranbrook×Halberd DH population. SGNO-5A.1 and SGNO-7A explained 31% and 24% of the genetic variation respectively and both QTL act synergistically to control stress tolerance (5A.1) and spike grain number (7A). Tolerant and sensitive tails of the Cranbrook×Halberd population are currently evaluated under managed field drought conditions (rainout shelter). Controlled environment studies confirmed that osmotic stress tolerant and sensitive tail lines are tolerant or sensitive to soil drought and heat stress, suggesting that osmotic adjustment is essential for maintaining grain number under other abiotic stress conditions. We are currently fine-mapping the SGNO-5A.1 and SGNO-7A QTL using MAGIC lines and F2 backcross lines.

Biography:

Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma is an Ayurvedic academician and renowned name in the field of Basic Principles of Ayurveda. He has contributed knowledge towards the public welfare especially Ayurveda cosmetics. He has completed his M.D. in 1991 from the prestigious Ayurveda Institute – National Institute of Ayurveda & completed his Ph.D. in 2013, completed H.P.A.Ed. One year course. At present he is the Associate Professor and HoD of the Deptt of Maulik Sidhanta (Basic Principle of Ayurveda) at the Dr. S.R.Rajasthan Ayurveda University, Jodhpur-India. He has been visited U S A and Hong Kong for the propagation of Ayurveda. Moreover, he has published 2 books, Articles 23 and more than 12 papers in reputed journals and serving as an editorial board member of the “Journal of Homeopathy and Ayurvedic Medicine”.

Abstract:

Ayurveda is a natural health care system that originated in India more than 5000 years ago. It emphasizes the treatment of disease in highly individualized manner as it believes that every individual is unique having different constitution. The concept of personalized medicine has been emerged as long as people have been practicing medicine. From Charaka to Hippocrates, all have practiced the personalized approach for treating a disease. According to Modern Science, humans are 99.9% identical. The genetic variation due to single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) is the most common between different human beings. The phenotypic differences arise due to SNP and it contributes 0.1% of the differences. Ayurveda is basically pragmatic, systemic and holistic, whereas biomedical sciences are theory-based, structural and reductionist. Biomedical science uses Aristotelian logic and reductionist scientific methodology to guide its propositions. Cellular and molecular biology governs its medical theories, whereas Ayurveda uses the Indian schemes of logic enshrined in the nyaya and vaishiseka schools, tridosha siddhant and dravya guna shastra to guide its medical theory. If personalized medicine is to be realized a systematic classification of human population is necessary but modern medicine classifies human population based on ethnicity. Geographic patterns of genetic variation show that inter-individual variation in drug response is common. This gap could be effectively filled by Ayurveda and its vision as ayurvedic classification is independent of racial, ethnic, or geographical considerations and may provide appropriate means of classifying phenotypes to be considered collectively for genotyping. Ayurvedic system of medicine and other traditional systems of medicine have a personalized approach in treating a patient with centuries of practice, rightly called experiential science. Ayurgenomics is the integration of the principles of Ayurveda with genomics. The primary challenge of Ayurgenomics is to establish the correlation between DNA and ‘Prakriti’. Ayurveda not only offers personalized treatment but personalized nutrition and personalized lifestyle by way of both drug and non drug modalities suited to an individual's prakriti making it a holistic science. These attributes of Ayurveda can play a major role in disease prevention and promotion of health towards longevity with a better quality of life, which forms the basis of personalized medicine.

Biography:

Tetiana Ivchenko has completed his PhD in 2003 from Institute of Vegetables and Melon Growing National Academy of Agricultural Science of Ukraine. He is the chief of the Laboratory of Theoretical bases breeding, Biotechnology and Genetic Resources Institute of Vegetables and Melons NAAS. He has published more than 70 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as member of the Coordination

Abstract:

Development of a biotechnological system of assessment and selection of the forms of egg-plant and tomato those are tolerant to Fusarium oxysporum in the culture of the in vitro isolated tissues have been studied. It has been determined that samples can be reliably differentiated in the selective media with culture filtrates on the stages of induction and proliferation of callus according to their resistance in the field. The studies used the high-grade and hybrid seeds of egg-plant and tomato genotypes of F1 - F4 breeds with different tolerance to Fusarium oxysporum. Cell selection was carried out in the media with different content of selective agent (20, 40 and 60 % of the total medium's volume). According to the selective assessment of initial and selected through the cell selection new breeding lines of egg-plant and tomato, there were 4 promising lines of egg-plant and 5 lines of tomato highlighted that exceeded the control samples and the initial genotypes in their resistance to fusarium and in fertility. The possibility and efficiency of the biotechnology of accelerated creation of and express-tests on the breeding lines of egg-plant and tomato resistant to F. oxysporum were substantiated and experimentally proved in order to cut the time necessary for the attainment of resistant initial material.

Biography:

Ana Claudia Macedo Vieira has completed his PhD at the age of 36 years from University of São Paulo, Brazil. She is associate professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and coordinates the pharmacobotany Laboratory, which conducts research with galls on sandbank environment, control of drugs and medicinal plants. Develops university extension projects with rational use of medicinal plants and unconventional food plants to farmers. She has published papers in reputed journals of Plant Science, Especially with galls and metabolical changes on host plants, and research with medicinal plants

Abstract:

Plant reproductive organs are considered very sensitive to the action of midges and depending on the level of induced change, leads to parasitic castration phenomenon causing the prevention of sexual reproduction of plants. Few models of floral galls have been described for neotropical regions, however, the salt marshes of Marica and Grumari in the state of Rio de Janeiro, were recorded and described floral galls on Byrsonima sericea DC. and Niedenzuella acutifolia (Cav.) WRAnderson (Malpighiaceae). B. sericea has been identified that there are three floral galls. induced by insects. In the gall-induced Diptera larvae developed in the pocket by inhibiting the development of ova and pollen. The gall induced Lepidoptera, the larva settles on pedicel, digging the central bud, preventing the formation of the pistil. In the third gall, the larval chamber is formed at the apex of the bud receptacle, leading to no training in their reproductive structures. In all, the cup and the corolla form ,, with varying degrees of atrophy in each type of gall. N. acutifolia occur two floral galls. The gall induced by Diptera, the gineceu hypertrophy, forming sheetlike structures where there are the larval chambers. In another gall only the cup carries and sepals are welded, forming a chamber and any other whorl is formed. In the five analyzed galls, changes in varying degrees in the differentiation of floral structures led to parasitic castration because none of the flower buds affected by midges are able to complete its development, affecting the reproductive success.

Biography:

Tabussam Tufail is doing MS from Government College University Faisalabad, Pakistan. He is 23 years old. He has 7 published abstracts in international conferences and presented papers in 5 international conferences. He has one accepted research paper in impacted journal (IJFPP). He has attended 15 international conferences, 3 trainings and workshops and 8 diploma courses. He is excellent in communication and research skills.

Abstract:

Curcuma longa is a yellow color spice and herb having significant role in the preservation of food. Curcumin (diferuoyl methane), a yellow active ingredient present in turmeric is a homodimer of feruloylmethane that comprises of a hydroxyl & methoxy group (a heptadiene with two Michael acceptors) and a, b-diketone. It contains various metabolites i.e. hexahydrocurcumin (HHC), tetrahydrocurcumin (THC), octahydrocurcumin (OHC), dihydrocurcumin (DHC), curcumin sulfate and curcumin glucuronide. THC metabolite show higher antioxidant activity than curcumin in experimental subjects. The pleiotropic activities of curcumin derive from its complex chemistry as well as its ability to influence multiple signaling pathways including NF-kB, Akt & growth factors, cytoprotective pathways dependent on Nrf2, metastatic and angiogenic pathways. In addition, it is a potent and specific inhibitor of p300/CBP HAT activity-dependent chromatin transcription. In brain glioma cell lines, curcumin induces histone hypoacetylation to activate poly adenosine diphosphate ribose polymerase-and caspase-3–mediated apoptosis. Moreover, inhibition of p300 mediated by curcumin decreases acetylation of RelA, which attenuates interaction with IjBa, leading to decreased IjBa-dependent nuclear export of the complex through a chromosomal region maintenance-1–dependent pathway. Furthermore, it has strong therapeutic or preventive potential against several major human ailments i.e. suppression of inflammation, cardiovascular, diabetes, tumorigenesis, antimicrobial, chronic fatigue, antidepressant & neurological activities, loss of bone & muscle, depression, and neuropathic pain. Enhanced bioavailability of curcumin in the near future is likely to bring this promising natural product to the forefront of therapeutic agents for treatment of human disease.

Biography:

Swapna Simon has obtained her PhD in Botany, specialization in Plant Biotechnology from Bharathiar University, India after Doctoral research studies in Sugarcane Breeding Institute (ICAR). Her study was on the molecular identity of ABA independent pathway and enzymatic and non enzymatic activity of plant defense mechanism under drought stress. After completing PhD, she has served at Rice Research Station, India on Development of abiotic stress tolerant mega rice varieties. Currently she is undergoing Postdoctoral studies in the Rice Research Station, Kerala Agriculture University, India, studying the gene tolerance for drought stress and identification of new sources of drought in rice.

Abstract:

Drought is a complex trait and the expression of drought resistance depends on action and interaction of different morphological, physiological and biochemical characters which triggers genetic responses towards drought avoidance and tolerance. The present study was conducted for the evaluation of osmotic stress responses in Kerala rice (Oryza sativa L) under water deficit conditions and for the effective identification of the best Kerala rice varieties with drought tolerance. The present paper focuses the morpho-physiological, biochemical and molecular characterization of a set of 42 high yielding rice varieties collected from various research stations of KAU under different ecological zones along with the variety Sahbhagi dhan (IR 74371-70-1-1-CRR-1) and the Jyothi as the tolerant and susceptible checks. The rice varieties were initially screened in PEG 6000 induced Yoshida nutrient medium and the selected drought tolerant varieties were pot cultured in a completely randomized design with three replications was used for the stressed and non stressed experiment. The high correlation of morpho-physiological and biochemical responses under drought over normal conditions, such as leaf rolling, phenotypic variations, relative water content (RWC) of leaf, photosynthetic pigments, cell membrane stability, osmolytes accumulation, antioxidant enzymatic responses along with the high drought recovery scoring pattern pointed towards the identification of the best varieties. The overall performance of the varieties Swarnaprabha (Ptb 43) and Kattamodan (Ptb 28) show positive adaptive responses towards drought stress than other varieties. This work is a step towards genetic improvement for drought tolerance in upland rice (Oryza sativa L) cultivation.

Biography:

André Luis de Alcantara Guimarães has completed his Ph.D. in Botany from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and postdoctoral studies at the Faculty of Pharmacy from UFRJ. He is an associate professor of Faculty of Pharmacy from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He has published papers in reputed journals of Plant Science, especially with galls and their metabolical changes on host plants, and research with medicinal plants

Abstract:

Galls are anomalies in plant development of parasitic origin that affect the cellular differentiation or growth and represent a remarkable plant–parasite interaction. The galls may occur in all organs of the host plant, from roots to fruits. However, the existence of galls in reproductive organs and their effects on host plants are seldom described in the literature. In the past decades, many studies aimed to analyze not only the morphological changes induced by these parasites but also the metabolic changes. Nevertheless, the mechanisms involved and how these organisms regulate these intricate changes still remain unclear. In our research, we present a novel study of galls in plants of the Neotropical region: the ‘witches’ broom’ galls developed in floral structures of Byrsonima sericea (Malpichiaceae). The affected inflorescences and flower buds showed several morphological and anatomical changes. The sepals, petals and carpels converted into leaf-like structures after differentiation and the gynoecium followed new destinations. In this work, we discuss the changes in the development of reproductive structures caused by witches’ broom galls and their effects on the reproductive success of the host plants. These results, combined with patterns in galls in different Neotropical plant species, suggest that gall inducers may alter gene expression, plant hormones and chemical compounds of host plants on their behalf.

Biography:

Dr. Tatit Nurseta, Medicine Doctor (Ph.D.-medicine),now is an A head of the Division of Oncologygnecolgy of Malang, Brawijaya University, Chairman of Continuing Education of Obstetrician Gynecologyst in Indonesian Society of Obstetri and Gynecology. He got his B Sc in Medical Doctor at Airlangga University, Surabaya, M Sc in Biomedics in Obstetri Gynecology in Brawijaya University, Malang, Specialist in Oncogynecology, Specialist in Obstetri Gynecology, sub specialist in Oncogynecology, Medicine Doctor's degree (Ph.D.) at Brawijaya University, Malang. And Dr. Tatit Nurseta got first place in best video tutorial in hysterectomy by Indonesian Society Obstetri Gynecology in 2015

Abstract:

The recent research show that cancer occurs because of the change of epigenetic in the cancer cell. The change of epigenetic happened due to hypermetilation or hypometilation in the DNA that cataysed by DNA metyl transferase enzyme. The hypermetilation of the promoter tumor suppressor gene which is causing Silencing of promoter tumor suppressor gene (TSG), hence it is inactive. Scurrula atropurpurea (Blume) danser contains flavonoids such as katechin, epikatechin, epikatechin gallat and epigalokatechin gallat (EGCG). EGCG has the ability to demetilation of cancer so it can reverse the the process of epigenetic and inhibit the activity of DNMT. It causes the demetilation and reactivation of gene that experienced Silencing as a result of metilation , including the tumor suppressor gene p16 . These falvanoids that have ability to inhibit the metilation of TSG and decrease of the ABCG2 gen expression so it will inhibit cancer proliferation and prevent the chemoresistancy. The metilation of gene p16 and ABCG2 gene influence the prevention on the proliferation and induction apoptotic in HeLa cell.

Biography:

Mr,Energetic thermal Department,USTHB, Algeria

Abstract:

In this work, we presented a numerical study of the phenomenon of heat transfer through the laminar, incompressible and steady mixed convection in a closed square cavity with the left vertical wall of the cavity is subjected to a warm temperature, while the right wall is considered to be cold. The horizontal walls are assumed adiabatic. The governing equations were discretized by finite volume method on a staggered mesh and the SIMPLER algorithm was used for the treatment of velocity-pressure coupling. The numerical simulations were performed for a wide range of Reynolds numbers 1, 10, 100, and 1000 numbers are equal to 0.01,0.1 Richardson, 0.5,1 and 10.The analysis of the results shows a flow bicellular (two cells), one is created by the speed of the fan placed in the inner cavity, one on the left is due to the difference between the temperatures right wall and the left wall. Knowledge of the intensity of each of these cells allowed us to get an original result. And the values obtained from each of Nuselt convection which allow to know the rate of heat transfer in the cavity.Finally we find that there is a significant influence on the position of the fan on the heat transfer (Nusselt evolution) for values of Reynolds studied and for low values of Richardson handed this influence is negligible for high values of the latter.

Biography:

Muluken Goftishu is an Assistant Professor of Entomology at Haramaya University, Ethiopia. Currently, he is a PhD candidate at Fort Hare University, South Africa. He has more than thirteen years of experience in teaching, research, development and consultancy in the area of agriculture. He has served at different levels of technical and managerial positions at Oromia Agricultural Research Institute and Haramaya University, Ethiopia. He has published more than 9 papers in reputable journals and has been serving as a Reviewer for many journals.

Abstract:

The stem borer, Sesamia cretica, is an important pest of Sorghum, maize and sugarcane plants in Northeast Africa, the Middle East and Mediterranean Europe. In Ethiopia, the pest was detected for the first time in 2014 from sugarcane. To evaluate the source of the invading pest populations, a study on genetic relation of the Ethiopian population of S. cretica and populations in Africa and Asia were compared using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) cytochrome oxidase I (COI). Molecular analysis revealed that the genetic variation recorded among S. cretica populations corresponding to host-plant differentiation rather than geographic regions. Significant genetic differentiation (FST=0.442; P<0.001) was found among Ethiopian populations of S. cretica collected from sugarcane and Afro-Asian populations recovered from Sorghum. This variation was further supported by the phylogenetic tree and haplotype networking which alienated the population of S. cretica into two clades based on host plants. These results suggest the influence of host plants on the genetic differentiation of S. cretica and also aid in tracking the source of pest populations that invaded sugarcane plantations in Ethiopia. Furthermore, the implications of these findings for pest management are discussed.

Biography:

S. O. Adebisi is a PhD Research fellow in Plant Genetics and Molecular Biology, Botany Department, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He has Masters degree in Crop Protection/Environmental Biology. He taught at Zamfara College of Arts and Science (ZACAS), Gusau, Nigeria. He worked with International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria, in the areas of plant genetics, crop improvement and molecular biology. Also, he served as facilitator with Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), National Advocacy programme, Nigeria. He has contributed to knowledge off classroom through publication of research articles in journals and conference proceedings, including organising community training and workshops. His professional and career interest include, academics and research, focusing on agriculture, environment and life system interactions, human development and social well-being.

Abstract:

Global development indicators are measured on human wellbeing, socio-economic values and environment safety; hence, linkages to these include food security, healthy ecosystem and safe planet for all. The Earth is overloaded with contaminants from anthropogenic activities while human prosperity is threatened with climate chemical and physical alterations. Several millions of world population remains vulnerable to various natural and man-made disasters including extreme poverty, biosphere pollution, malnutrition, hunger, pest risks, biodiversity loss, species extinction, land degradation and crop loss. The world population growth is projected to reach 9 billion by 2050 from current estimate of 7 billion with about 795 million people undernourished, over a billion living on less than $1.25 a day and 1.4 billion suffering from diseases. This paper recommend participation of plant scientists through innovative breeding and biotechnology to lead and drive solutions initiative in smart agro-system and high-tech investigations to increase crop productivity and food supply to ever shooting global population and mitigate the challenges associated with crop yield. Sustainable control of crop loss and food wastage requires scientifically tailored interventions, effective funding, globalized data-structure and partnerships to combat hunger and malnutrition, improve plant nutrient and water use, reduce agro-chemicals dependent and create alternative crop-environment modeling techniques. Clean evidences on the viability, applicability, reliability and sustainability of genomics and related sciences are invaluable opportunities to discover, invent, create and recreate more genetic resources and workable tools for the implementation of the sustainable development goals for people’s wellbeing.

Biography:

Ms. Chan Man-yin has graduated her Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapist in Hong Kong. She is an occupational therapist in Hospital Authority. She is a mature and competent therapist demonstrating drive and determination to improve herself as well as her professional practice. She is also actively involved in Occupational Health and Safety activities in hospital, with more than 20 years of working experience in psychiatric rehabilitation. She is able to manage many pioneer projects multi-disciplinary within and outside hospital. She has organized several oversea training and attachment before. She is uniquely positioned within the occupational therapy profession. She has authored various publications with ample experience as a conference presenter.

Abstract:

Ms. Chan Man-yin has graduated her Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapist in Hong Kong. She is an occupational therapist in Hospital Authority. She is a mature and competent therapist demonstrating drive and determination to improve herself as well as her professional practice. She is also actively involved in Occupational Health and Safety activities in hospital, with more than 20 years of working experience in psychiatric rehabilitation. She is able to manage many pioneer projects multi-disciplinary within and outside hospital. She has organized several oversea training and attachment before. She is uniquely positioned within the occupational therapy profession. She has authored various publications with ample experience as a conference presenter.

Biography:

Purin Candra Purnama is curently finishing her PhD at IBL, Leiden University. She has published several papers in reputed journal. Her research is mainly foccused on the metabolomics of C.roseus and identification of its key regulators, and also dual metabolism of C. roseus and its endophytes

Abstract:

Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don. is an interesting medicinal plant to study related to its diverse production of terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs), up to 130. Among others is the production of dimeric alkaloids, vinblastine and vincristine, functioned as anticancer. Unfortunately the yield is only counted for 0.0002% fresh weight and its complex structure becomes the biggest challenge to synthesize it. Thus to increase the production through metabolic engineering, knowledge on the complete characterized biosynthetic pathway is needed, including the identification of key regulators in the secondary metabolites production. Using metabolomics and transcriptomic approaches, we reported the discovery of the last four missing steps of the (seco)iridoid biosynthesis pathway and the heterologous expression of these genes into other plant which confirms the functionality of all enzymes in the pathway. Our latest finding is the identification of a jasmonate-regulated basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor from clade IVa inducing the monoterpenoid branch of the MIA pathway. The bHLH iridoid synthesis 1 (BIS1) transcription factor transactivated the expression of all of the genes encoding the enzymes that catalyze the sequential conversion of the ubiquitous terpenoid precursor geranyl diphosphate to the iridoid loganic acid. In contrast to ORCA3, overexpression of BIS1 was sufficient to boost production of high-value iridoids and MIAs in C. roseus suspension cell cultures. Hence, BIS1 might be a metabolic engineering tool to produce sustainably high-value MIAs in C. roseus plants or cultures.

Biography:

Brijesh Pandey has completed his PhD in Bochemistry from Univesity of Lucknow in 2010. He is working as the Programme Leader of BTech Biotechnology in Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow Campus from 2008 and as an Assistant Professor dealing with Recombinant DNA Technology. He has contributed significantly to understanding and designng stratagy for genetic improvement of Leucaena leucocephala.

Abstract:

Nigella sativa Linn., commonly known as the black cumin seed is an annual herb, belongs to the family of Ranuculaceae. The existing germplasm was analyzed for its antioxidant property at different stages of plant growth. Spectrophotometric analysis of peroxidases with guaiacol as substrate exhibited increase upto seed forming stage (0.127±0.055). While with o-dinididene maximum activity was observed at flowering stage and minor decline thereafter. Among non-enzymatic antioxidant flavonoids and total phenolics was found maximum at flowering stage (5.066±1.301) (mg equivalent QE/gram of tissue) ±SD and (20.44±1.596) (mg equivalent GA /gram of tissue) ±SD respectively. Total carotenoid and total antioxidant was observed maximum at seed forming stage (1148.51±36.385) (µg/gram fresh weight) ±SD and (0.952±0.135) (mM equivalent ascorbic acid/g tissue) ±SD respectively. When correlation was established between total antioxidant and different enzymatic and non enzymatic antioxidants, it was found to be strongly positive. The germplasm has been tested for extraction of thymoquinone (TQ), a potent antioxidant and analysed by HPLC. The growth profile for above mentioned antioxidants and TQ seems interesting and deserves special attanetion.

Biography:

Mahjabeen is doing MS Botany from Government College University Faisalabad. She has done BS(HONS) Botany from Government College University Faisalabad, Pakistan. She is interested in research activities. She is also a member research group in the University. She is 22 years old. She has attended 2 symposiums. She has presented in many national conferences. She is excellent in communication and research skills.

Abstract:

It has become a great puzzle to explore the power of genomics by unlocking the genomics of different species. Functional genomics is used to understand the complex relationship between genotype and protein expression. It assimilates information to gain an understanding of how DNA sequence is interrupted into complex facts. The ultimate goal line is to explore all the genes and their functions in Arabidopsis. The genome size of Arabidopsis is 1.5*108bp.It is a plant of family Brassicaceae and is edible as many species of this family. It has become an exemplary plant in the field of genetic and cell biology. It was the plant whose genome was first sequenced and become a model for many plant characters including development and light sensing. Our findings will investigate the comparative genomic analysis of different species of Brassicaceae. In addition, it also divulges the CHE as a component of Arabidopsis circadian clock. We established a functional genomic strategy that directed us to the identification of CHE.A transcription factor is used to bind directly with the promoter to regulate its expression negatively. The points unfilled in the work will significantly contribute to a better understanding of circadian clock and landscape genome of Arabidopsis.