Day 2 :
Keynote Forum
Hikmet Budak
Professor Montana State University, USA
Keynote: Next generation tools in agriculture and charting the future research plan
Time : 10:00-10:50
Biography:
Hikmet Budak has received his PhD degree with a major in Plant Breeding and Genetics and with a minor in Biometry from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA in 2002. He has worked as a Coordinator and led grass genetics and breeding program at the same university and then returned to Turkey in 2004. He has received the Turkish Young Scientist Award in Turkey and Achievement Award by WORLCOMP06, USA in 2016. He has then joined Montana State University, USA as Montana Plant Sciences Endowed Chair in 2016. He has published over 120 peer reviewed articles and 10 book chapters. His research interests include molecular mechanisms of abiotic/biotic stress in wheat and barley in addition to computational genome analysis and genomics.
Abstract:
World population is expected to be 9 billion people in 2050 and global food production will need to increase by 70% in order to meet the global demand. Simultaneously, we as plant scientists must work to cope with changes in climate fluctuation, droughts, infestation of insects and diseases. These are major threat to international food security. Meeting the global food demand and addressing these challenges require using and utilizing new tools and technologies. With the advent of Next generation technologies and emergence of OMICS techniques including transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, ionomics and CRISPR-Cas tools have helped to identify and characterize the genes, proteins, metabolites and ions involved in drought signaling pathways including editing, deleting and replacing the genome. Together, all these efforts helped in understanding the complex traits such as yield, water deficit and drought tolerance mechanism. In this talk we will talk more about new tools for next generation agriculture for crop improvement.
Keynote Forum
Amir M H Ibrahim
Professor Texas A&M University, USA
Keynote: Current trends in genomics and phenomics in wheat breeding
Time : 11:10-12:00
Biography:
Amir M H Ibrahim is a Professor and the project leader of the Small Grains Breeding program at TAMU. He joined the faculty of the Soil and Crop Sciences Department at TAMU in 2007. He received his Ph.D. in plant breeding and genetics from CSU in 1998. Dr. Ibrahim is currently involved in international collaborative research in North and East Africa, Central America, Central Asia and East Europe. His current research interests include mapping of genes and quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, end-use quality characteristics, germplasm diversity and genetic distance, yield per se and synthetic wheat. Dr. Ibrahim is also the Chair of the advisory Committee of Texas A&M AgriLife AgriGenomics Laboratory. Dr. Ibrahim teaches a graduate level course in “Experimental Designs in Agriculture” and an undergraduate course in “Crop Stress Management”.
Abstract:
Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) breeding is a combination of art and science necessary for the accumulation of genes for high grain yield and stability, superior end-use quality and tolerance to prevalent biotic and abiotic stresses. Wheat breeding is also a numbers’ enterprise requiring the development of hundreds of targeted crosses, derivation of thousands of lines from early segregation bulk populations, and the screening of tens of thousands of advanced lines across multiple locations and years. High throughput phenotyping, via unmanned aircraft and ground-based systems, in conjunction with high throughput genotyping of molecular markers for high value traits, has become indispensable for maximizing gain from selection and development and release of superior genotypes for consequent release and adoption by producers. This presentation highlights current trends in phenomics and genomics tools necessary for large wheat improvement programs seeking to maintain their cutting edge in developing and releasing of superior wheat cultivars.