Winter school on “Molecular breeding approaches for genetic enhancement in oilseed crops”

Winter school on “Molecular breeding approaches for genetic enhancement in oilseed crops”

Introduction

India is one of the major oilseed producing countries and is the fourth largest vegetable oil economy in the World. Traditionally, edible and non-edible oils are used for variety of purposes including food, energy and medicine in India. Concerted breeding efforts have lead to the development of improved cultivars, which have substantially increased the production in the country. However, India still imports about 50% of domestic requirement of vegetable oils. The area under cultivation of the oilseed crops is also declining due to low productivity, which is caused by a myriad of factors such as under-exploitation of yield potential and susceptibility to biotic/abiotic stresses. Therefore, realizing a breakthrough in the productivity of these crops is the immediate challenge faced by the breeders currently. Application of innovative breeding tools such as molecular markers in breeding programmes would help to address this challenge more effectively. The use of molecular marker technology, in improving the efficiency of classical breeding and designing superior cultivars with greater speed, precision and value, has been well demonstrated in major crops.

Since the advent of RFLPs in 1980s, the technology has undergone a major change during the last three decades. Developments in genome sequencing technologies and bioinformatics have made it possible to sequence crop genomes instantly with extraordinarily greater speed and cheaper cost, to discover a large number of robust DNA markers (SSRs/SNPs) and to develop high resolution genetic linkage maps, which have eventually led to discovery of several agronomically useful genes in crop plants. Pyramiding of desirable genes through MAS has now become a practice in crop breeding. New and efficient genotyping systems are also constantly emerging, which make application of MAS in large-scale breeding programmes more affordable.

Application of molecular markers in breeding of oil seed crops has started emerging but in a very limited scale. Considerable efforts have been made to develop genomic resources in oilseed crops such as rapeseed/Indian mustard, groundnut, soybean, sunflower and safflower. Castor genome has been sequenced. These developments provide new opportunities to establish molecular breeding programmes in this group of crops. It is widely recognized that there is a need to train breeders or researchers engaged in breeding of these crops on the basic knowledge and techniques of molecular markers and genomics in order to better integrate molecular markers in the breeding process. Hence, the winter school on “Molecular breeding approaches for genetic enhancement in oilseed crops” is being organized at the Directorate of Oilseeds Research (DOR), Hyderabad.

Course content

The training course will consist of both theory and practical sessions. The major topics to be covered include: Molecular marker systems in plant breeding; High-throughput genotyping technologies; Genome mapping and QTL analysis; Map based cloning of genes/QTLs; Phenomics for QTL/gene discovery; Functional genomics approaches for candidate gene discovery; Methods and applications of TILLING and Eco-TILLING; Association mapping and allele mining; Strategies of MAS in crop breeding; Gene pyramiding in crop plants; Marker-assisted recurrent selection for population improvement; Genome-wide selection in plant breeding-concepts and applications; Use of markers in germplasm characterization and gene

bank management; DNA markers for cultivar fingerprinting and genetic seed purity testing; Bioinformatics in molecular breeding; Molecular breeding of oil seed crops – perspectives from seed and processing industry; Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issues in molecular breeding; Molecular breeding through transgenic technology; Development and deployment of transgenic oilseed crops; Biosafety regulation and procedural requirement for evaluation of transgenics. Hands-on training will be on genotyping methods using SSR and SNP markers, handling of bioinformatics related to genome database for marker discovery, primer designing and validation, analysis of genetic diversity, population structure, kinship and linkage disequilibrium, association mapping and allele mining, construction of linkage maps and QTL analysis.

Target group

The training course will be suitable for crop researchers from ICAR institutes/State AUs/CAU/Agricultural faculty of AMU, BHU, Vishwa Bharti and Nagaland university in the cadre of Assistant Professors or equivalent and above.

Course duration

The duration of the training course will be 21 days from December 01-21, 2012. The sessions will start daily from 9:30 AM and will continue till late evening

Venue and other details

The pogramme will be conducted mainly at DOR. The program is residential and participants are required to stay at DOR campus, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad. Accommodation will be provided on twin-share basis at the Guest House/Hostel within DOR campus. Candidates should bring Permission & Relieving Letter from the respective Institute. Selected participants will be paid travel fare to and fro for journey by first class or AC II class train fare as per their entitlement only or bus or other means of transport in vogue as the case may be. Actual TA will be paid on production of a certificate by the participants. Food & Accommodation will be provided by the organizers. No DA is admissible to the participants.

DOR is located at the Acharya Agricultural University (ANGRAU) Campus at Rajendranagar on the Himayatsagar Road. It is located at an approximate distance of 15 Kms from Rajiv Gandhi (Hyderabad) International Airport, 17 Km from Nampally or Kacheguda Railway Stations, 23 Km from Secunderabad Railway Station and 15 Km from Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station and can be reached by local bus 94H, 94R, 95R and 95L) or taxi or auto rickshaw.

Last date for nomination

The duly filled in nomination form forwarded through proper channel must reach Dr. M. Sujatha, Course Director, with a copy marked to the Project Director, Directorate of Oilseeds Research, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad – 500 030 on or before October 1, 2012. The nomination form can be downloaded from the website www.dor-icar.org.in and sent in advance through e-mail to: sujatador@gmail.com. There is a provision for 25 participants and the selection would be based on the suitability of the applicant as assessed by the selection committee. Announcement of the

final selection will be intimated individually by October 15, 2012 through e-mail/regular mail. The selected list of participants will also be displayed in DOR website.

Contact details

Dr. M. Sujatha

Principal Scientist & Course Director

Directorate of Oilseeds Research

Rajendranagar, Hyderabad – 500 030

Phone: 040-24015344

Fax: 040-24017969

Mobile: 9440880335

E-mail: sujatador@gmail.com  

Course Co-ordinators

Dr. V. Dinesh Kumar

Principal Scientist (Biotechnology)

Phone: 040-24015344

Fax: 040-24017969

Mobile: 9440366614

E-mail: dineshkumarv@yahoo.com  

Dr. S. Senthilvel

Senior Scientist (Plant Breeding)

Phone: 040-24015344

Fax: 040-24017969

Mobile: 9493869114

E-mail: senasenthil@yahoo.com  

Dr. P. Kadirvel

Senior Scientist (Genetics)

Phone: 040-24015344

Fax: 040-24017969

Mobile: 9908509580

E-mail: kadirvelp@yahoo.com  

Dr. Sujatha, T.P.

Scientist (Biotechnology)

Phone: 040-24015344

Fax: 040-24017969

Mobile: 9701181469

E-mail: hiisuj1@gmail.com

FOR DETAILS, PLEASE REFER http://www.dor-icar.org.in/media/docs/winter-school-dec-2012.pdf