Nov 30, 2020Genomics production pipeline focus of next World Potato Congress webinar
The next World Potato Congress webinar, “Developing the Pipeline from Genomics to New Products,” is set for 9 a.m. EST Dec. 15.
It will be presented by Mark Taylor, who serves as the James Hutton Institute’s co-leader of potato genetics and molecular physiology.
Taylor’s presentation will highlight some of the challenges in developing new potato varieties that could deliver the full potential of the crop. Recent achievements in overcoming some the obstacles to improving varieties will be reviewed briefly and important traits for the future considered. Approaches to understanding responses to abiotic stresses will be outlined and as an example, results from heat stress experiments will be presented. Central to many aspects of yield development is the control of the potato tuber life cycle, from tuber initiation to sprouting. Recent progress in our understanding of this cycle will be described.
Taylor completed his undergraduate and Ph.D. studies in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Birmingham. After post-doctoral research at the University of London, Royal Holloway College and University of California, Berkeley, he joined the Scottish Crop Research Institute (predecessor of the James Hutton Institute) in 1989 to lead studies in crop molecular physiology.
The main thrust of Taylor’s research has been on understanding the molecular basis of quality and developmental traits in potato. A wide range of contemporary approaches, including transcriptomics and phytochemical analysis, exploiting variation in traits of interest in germplasm collections and using transgenic models as proof of function are being used to investigate quality and developmental traits.
WPC webinars are hosted by Nora Olsen of the University of Idaho.
Register here.
Other upcoming WPC webinars include:
- Jan. 14, 2021 — Todd Forbush, Storage Systems Engineer, Techmark
- Feb. 18, 2021 — Eugenia Banks, Potato Specialist, Ontario Potato Board
- April 2021 — Paul Horne, Director/ Entomologist, IPM Technologies Pty
- May 2021 — Albert Schirring, Strategy Lead Vegetables & Potatoes, Bayer AG
If you missed any of the previous webinars, you can view them all on the World Potato Congress website at www.potatocongress.org.