Select Conferences | AgriGenomics World Congress 2009

Agenda

Day One - Thursday 2 July 2009

08:00	Registration
	Enhancing Plant Resistance to Disease
09:00	Keynote Presentation Kill or be Killed: Genomics of the Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogen sclerotinia sclerotiorum Martin B Dickman, Professor & Director, Institute for Plant Genomics and Biotechnology, Texas A & M University Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is among the world’s most successful and omnivorous, fungal plant pathogens, with a host range of greater than 400 plant species. Despite considerable effort, resistant germplasm is still lacking in economically important crops. Genomics and comparative genomics provide a means to better understand and manage necrotrophic disease.
09:30	RNA Trafficking in Plant Development and Intercellular Spread of RNA Silencing Yiguo Hong, Research Leader, University of Warwick A general view on RNA trafficking in plant development and talk about whether RNA movement is involved in floral induction will be presented. He will also discuss whether plants exploit viral proteins to promote intercellular spread of RNA silencing.
10:00	Technology Spotlight KASP - A Flexible, Cost-Effective, SNP-Genotyping Platform Technology KBiosciences KBiosciences utilize a novel SNP genotyping chemistry called KASPar. It is based on allele specific PCR using a specific and robust polymerase. The use of three unlabelled oligo’s per assay makes this technology very flexible and cost efficient. Using a technology for plate sealing called Laser Welding, KASPar can be used for low volume, high throughput SNP genotyping.
10:15	Coffee and Networking
11:00	Keynote Presentation Recognition of Pathogen Effector Proteins in Plant Innate Immunity Brian Staskawicz, Chair of Plant & Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley This presentation will discuss our current state of knowledge on the role of pathogen effector proteins in plant innate immunity. In addition, strategies for the molecular breeding of durable disease resistance in agricultural crops will also be presented.
11:30	Plant-Expressed RNAi Constructs to Induce Knock-Down of Fungal Genes Gotz Hensel, Research Leader, Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research The first results from our experiments of transient and stable expression of those constructs in barley showed that the intimate cellular interaction between host and pathogen provides an adequate situation allowing plant-produced, fungus-specific double-stranded RNA to impede fungal development. The main objective of this project is the generation of transgenic barley exhibiting high resistance against a broad range of fungal plant pathogens.
12:00	Technology Spotlight NightOWL in vivo Imaging System Berthold Technologies The NightOWL in vivo imager has been specifically improved for its use in plant science with LED panels simulating spectral changes of daylight and multi-position sample tray. The microplate instruments Centro and Mithras can be set up for high-throughput gene expression of seedlings grown in microplates.
12:15	Lunch complements of KBiosciences Free Workshop: in-vivo Plant Research with NightOWL Imaging System
13:00	Poster Viewing
	Systems-Based Approaches & Genomic Mapping Chair: Yiguo Hong
14:00	A Roadmap from the Genomics Revolution to a New Era in Public Plant Breeding Yunbi Xu, Senior Scientist, CIMMYT This presentation will highlight the most significant issues associated with the effective application of genomics in plant breeding together with recent progress in cereal genomics-assisted breeding at CIMMYT including seed DNA-based MAS, selective genotyping, and whole genome association mapping for quality traits and drought tolerance. The remaining rate limiting constraints and bottlenecks will be discussed along with the ultimate opportunities for molecular plant breeding.
14:30	The Genome of brachypodium distachyon Georg Haberer, Staff Scientist, Munich Information Centre for Protein Sequences This session will present recent computational analysis of the Brachypodium genome as well as of its gene and repeat content. Comparative and synteny studies will highlight common and different functional genetic elements between this important grass model and rice and sorghum.
15:00	A Major Leaf Rust Resistance QTL Widely Exploited in Durum Wheat Breeding Maps on Chromosome 7BL Roberto Tuberosa, Professor, University of Bologna Leaf rust threatens durum wheat production. Linkage and association mapping identified a major QTL on chr. 7BL for seedling and adult rust resistance contributed by Creso, a successful cultivar released in 1974 and widely exploited in breeding programs worldwide.
15:30	Coffee and Networking
16:15	Quantitative Proteomic Analysis of Bean Plants Infected with Virulent and Avirulent Strains of an Obligate Rust Fungus Bret Cooper, Research Plant Pathologist, USDA-AR Plants appear to have two types of active defenses, a broad-spectrum basal system and a system controlled by R-genes providing stronger resistance to some pathogens that break the basal defense. However, it is unknown if the systems are separate entities. Therefore, proteins from leaves of the dry bean crop plant Phaseolus vulgaris were analyzed using a high-throughput liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method.
16:45	Microarray Analysis And Development Of A High Throughput Plant Transformation System To Study Gene Expression Occurring Between Soybean (Glycine max) And Its Major Pathogen, The Soybean Cyst Nematode (Heterodera glycines) Vincent Klink, Assistant Professor, Mississippi State University Parasitic nematodes are a major agricultural problem that is poorly understood. The most prominent of these interactions is Glycine max infection by Heterodera glycines because it accounts for an estimated $460 to $818 million in production losses annually in the U.S. and approximately 15 billion, worldwide. During infection, H. glycines create a feeding cell called a syncytium that it feeds from throughout its life cycle. Syncytia were isolated by laser capture microdissection to identify genes expressed during its development. A microarray analysis was then used to study gene expression within syncytia. H. glycines gene expression was also monitored, revealing numerous genes involved in various aspects of growth and development.
17:15	Whole Genome Sequencing in Livestock Species : The Beginning of the End? André Eggen, Agriculture Segment Manager, Europe Illumina Inc. Over the past years and thanks to the development of high throughput genomic tools, whole genome sequencing efforts have enabled a rapid increase in the amount of data available on the genome of livestock species. In addition to their usefulness to better describe genomic structures and functions, new technologies, such as high-quality solutions for interrogating genetic variation in livestock populations, are in fact revolutionizing animal breeding : selection decisions will now be based on genomic information, associated with considerable phenotypic information, offering a more cost-effective selection schema. However, while the genomics era should enable the prediction of consequences based on the DNA sequence, new challenges are now to better describe the exact functioning of a genome and better evaluate the contribution of epigenetics to the phenotypic variability of traits of economic interest as it may provide a dynamic and relevant view of possibilities for adaptation to environmental changes.
17:45	Drinks Reception complements of Berthold Technologies

Day Two - Friday 3 July 2009

	Growth Optimization for Food and Biofuels
09:00	Keynote Presentation Rational Metabolic Engineering of Transgenic Plants with the Capacity to Synthesize High Levels of Omega-3 long chain Polyunsaturates Johnathan Napier, Research Leader, Rothamsted Research There is now good evidence as to the health-protective powers of omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (generically known as fish oils). Simultaneously, there is increasing pressure on marine sources of these important oils. Our research has been focused on providing an alternative sustainable source of these bioactive fatty acids through engineering their synthesis in transgenic plants. Recent advances and progress will be discussed.
09:30	Application of Genomics-Based Technologies from a Food Company’s Point of View Caius Rommens, Director of R&D, J.R. Simplot Simplot developed a consumer-friendly approach to genetic engineering by focusing on quality traits and only modifying the crop’s own genome. Their methods provide freedom-to-operate, and make it possible to launch enhanced quality products if supported by government, industry, and consumers.
10:00	Production of Haploid and Doubled Haploid Oil Palm Plants Jim Dunwell, Professor, University of Reading This presentation describes the production of haploid and doubled haploids in oil palm. This is a critical first stage in the development of F1 hybrids that will lead to significant increases in yield in this globally important oil crop.
10:30	Technology Spotlight A Changing Paradigm in Agriculture André Eggen, Agriculture Segment Manager, Europe Illumina Inc Agriculture is undergoing a paradigm shift from searching for plants or animals to searching for genes and genetic loci responsible for valuable traits. This paradigm shift is being brought on by revolutionary new tools that enable seed and animal breeders and producers to screen large populations and assess genetic variation on a genome-wide basis. Illumina’s genetic analysis tools enable discovery, validation and screening of any variant in any species. These tools are enabling breeders world-wide to identify valuable traits quicker, publish faster and be first to market with new and better products.
10:45	Coffee and Networking
11:15	Keynote Presentation Improving Dedicated Energy Crops for Biofuel Production Richard Flavell, Chief Scientific Officer, Ceres There is urgency for having much higher yielding varieties of dedicated energy crops for feedstocks for the biofuels industry. Ways of advancing improvements in these crops will be discussed.
11:45	Bioenergy Crops for a Sustainable Future: Genetics, Genomics and the Environment Gail Taylor, Professor, University of Southampton Second generation bioenergy crops are those which are grown for dedicated energy production and do not compete for land with food crops since the concept is that they can occupy marginal or abandoned land. These crops are largely unimproved with limited traditional breeding and included miscanthus, willow, poplar and switchgrass. In this talk I will consider how genetics and genomics approaches in poplar can be applied to develop high yield energy trees with low inputs and therefore appropriate life cycle carbon costs to ensure that they can be deployed for future heat, power and liquid fuel uses.
12:15	Lunch complements of KBiosciences and Poster Viewing
	Genomics for Stress Tolerance Chair: Johnathan Napier
13:45	Genetic and Epigenetic Changes in Stress-Tolerant Plants Igor Kovalchuk, Group Leader, University of Lethbridge A series of the experiments in the lab showed that stress exposure leads to transgenerational changes in genome stability, methylation pattern and stress tolerance. We identified several mutants impaired in establishment of these heritable changes.
14:15	Genetic Basis of Stress-Induced Growth Inhibition John Turner, Research Leader, University of East Anglia Abiotic stress reduces plant growth by activating production of the growth inhibitor, jasmonic acid. Plants unable to respond to JA grow during the abiotic stress. This identifies an opportunity to develop crops whose growth is not reduced by stress.
14:45	Generation of Aluminum Tolerant Roots through Bypassing a DNA Damage Checkpoint Paul Larsen, Associate Professor, University of California, Riverside A profound increase in Al tolerance in plants can be engineered by the introduction of a single gene dominant negative mutation that results in roots incapable of detecting and/or responding to Al dependent DNA damage.
15:15	Coffee, Networking and Poster Award
15:45	GMOs in Europe: The Risk Assessment and Approval Process Howard Davies, Director of Science Co-ordination, Scottish Crop Research Institute Europe remains at a virtual standstill regarding commercial production of GMOs, with European governments split when voting on approvals, despite positive statements on the safety of individual products from the European Food Safety Authority. No crops have approved for cultivation for almost 10 years and GM crops cover only 0.119 % of European agricultural land. This presentation will provide an overview of the approval process in the EU, including the risk assessment strategies. The scope for improving the process will be considered using, for example, risk assessment frameworks developed within EU projects such as SAFE FOODS (www.safefoods.nl). The potential use of "omics"” approaches within the risk assessment process will also be discussed as a tool to further reduce uncertainties related to any “unintended effects” caused by the genetic modification. This is particularly relevant for next generation GM crops with modified metabolism and nutritional profiles.
16:15	Panel Discussion: Should and Could We Overcome Barriers to Market for GM Crops Chair - Caius Rommens Jim Dunwell Howard Davies Billions of dollars are invested each year in efforts to improve crops through genetic engineering. These activities have resulted in a surge of publications and patents on enabling technologies and traits: a momentum in basic research that, unfortunately, is not sustained throughout the subsequent phases of product development. Most technologies have not yet been seriously considered for commercial use in a market that is still dominated by applications of just a handful of methods and genes. This discrepancy between research and development reflects difficulties in understanding and overcoming six main barriers-to-entry: (1) trait efficacy in the field, (2) freedom-to-operate, (3) industry support, (4) identity preservation and stewardship, (5) regulatory approval, and (6) retail and consumer acceptance. In this discussion, we will describe the various roadblocks and consider methods and approaches on how to bring inventions to the market place.