Conference Sessions

"From genomes to integration and delivery"

By proposing the theme "From genomes to integration and delivery", our intention is to promote a more integrated and applied dialogue on tree biotechnology and genomics, besides the mainstream discussion of the fundamental advances on the genetic mechanisms that underlie the various target phenotypes.

A specific session on "Genomics assisted breeding" will take place, in addition to the usual "Linkage and association mapping" session devoted to gene, associations and QTL discoveries. Our goal is to attract a larger audience of breeders and quantitative geneticists by encouraging the presentation and discussion of molecular breeding case studies, strategies and simulations that aim at translating and integrating those genomic discoveries into applied breeding.

In the population genomics and conservation session we expect to include discussions and case-studies on the actual use of molecular data to applied conservation genetics programs. Genome-wide scans for adaptive polymorphisms that now can be carried out very efficiently by high-throughput SNP genotyping and soon by next generation genotyping-by-sequencing technologies, can reveal climate induced changes in the genetic structure of tree populations and shed light on the genetic basis of tree interactions with biological communities and environmental variables. Physiological aspects of tree development and reproduction and the complex interactions of trees with the environment and other organisms will be the theme of specific sessions.

In the "Wood formation" session not only will we learn about the advances in systems biology of wood development, but we will encourage the debate of applied issues regarding genetic engineering of wood properties and their expected impact on industrial processes and bioenergy production. The prospects of effectively exploiting the development of engineered trees, the advances in operational systems for large-scale clonal propagation and existing pipelines for gene discovery by transgenic research will be discussed in the session devoted to "Propagation and in vitro technologies".

A technology oriented session will specifically deal with the most cutting edge genomic, metabolomic and proteomic high throughput technologies and how these will impact the way that genomic resources can now be developed for forest trees and how experiments in tree genomics and wood biotechnology can now be approached. In this session we will learn about the most recent developments of the whole genome sequencing projects on main plantation trees.

Finally in the "Biosafety, certification and economic aspects of tree biotechnology" we look forward to a very productive discussion on the several economic, certification, public perception and biosafety aspects that have affected the advancement of applied tree biotechnology from the laboratory to the forest field and industry.

To reach the goals outlined above, the organizing and scientific committees are currently working on the preparation of the complete program. You can already have a look at the planned sessions with keywords that will help you plan where to submit your abstract.

In each session we plan to have three invited speakers (30 min. each) followed by up to six presentations (15minutes each) selected for oral presentation from the submitted abstracts.

Conference Sessions

S1. Population genomics, conservation and adaptation

Keywords: evolution, phylogeography, ecological genetics, ecological and evolutionary genomics, population molecular structure, applied molecular-based conservation genetics

S2. Linkage and association mapping

Keywords: mapping, QTLs, eQTLs, gene discovery, mutation screening, SNP discovery and development, association genetics

S3. Genomics assisted breeding

Keywords: marker assisted selection (MAS), Genomic Selection (GS), molecular breeding strategies, simulation studies of MAS/GS, high-throughput genotyping technologies applied to breeding

S4. Reproduction, growth and development

Keywords: growth, development, metabolism, nutrient uptake, signal transduction, cell cycle, physiological monitoring indicators

S5. Biotic and abiotic interactions

Keywords: interactions with pests, pathogens and symbiotic organisms; interaction with the environment: drought/cold tolerance, nutrient/salt stress, elevated CO2 exposure

S6. Wood formation

Keywords: cambial activity and differentiation, cell wall biosynthesis, xylogenesis, chemical composition, fiber properties, genetic engineering of wood properties, high throughput wood phenotyping technologies

S7. Propagation and in vitro technologies

Keywords: advances and impact of vegetative propagation, micropropagation, micrografting, criopreservation, somatic embryogenesis, genetic transformation technologies

S8. Genomic, proteomic and metabolomic technologies

Keywords: genome composition, structure and organization, mobile elements and repetitive sequences, comparative genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, proteomics, phenomics, bioinformatics, high-throughput sequencing technologies

S9. Biosafety, certification and economics of tree biotechnology

Keywords: environmental risk assessment of GE trees, biosafety, stability of transgene expression, gene flow, environmental/social/economic benefits, regulations and compliance, genomics patents,  forest certification

Workshop of the European Cooperation of Science and Technology COST Action FP0905

“Biosafety of forest transgenic trees: improving the scientific basis for safe tree development and implementation of EU policy directives"