Here’s a sneak preview of what will be presented at the upcoming Phenome 2017 conference, to be held on Feb. 10-14 in Tucson, AZ.
Phenome 2017 provides a unique opportunity for plant biologists, engineers, computer and information scientists, chemists, mathematicians, geologists, physicists, and meteorologists to mingle, forge collaborations, share insights, and develop strategies to tackle real-world problems.
The Phenomic Insights into Quantitative Traits concurrent sessions will take place in the morning on Saturday, February 11, at Phenome 2017.
Quantitative traits affect some of the most important agronomic traits of major crop species, including plant height, biomass, yield, and composition. In this session, a diverse group of speakers will examine how phenomics can help us understand the inheritance of these quantitative traits, their interactions with the environment, and make accurate models for improving these traits for food crops and emerging bioeconomic crops for feed, biofuels, and plant-based production of pharmaceuticals and industrial products.
Jesse Poland from Kansas State University and Director of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Applied Wheat Genomics will talk about using precision high-throughput phenotyping measurements to improve yield prediction models in wheat breeding: “We are starting to get some nice results where we can show that using HTP measurements from UAV can really increase the prediction accuracy of genomic prediction models that were only using marker data and ‘traditional’ phenotypes.”
Research in Tom Mitchell-Olds’s lab at Duke University centers on complex trait variation in plant populations. At Phenome2017, he will address the question: “In laboratory or field systems, how can we find and understand the genes and pathways that influence plant performance across environments?”
Attendees will also hear from Natalia de Leon of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, whose research integrates genomic and phenomic-based technologies to explore genetic architecture and the functional genetic basis of economically important traits.
Robin Buell of Michigan State University uses high-throughput sequencing, functional genomics, comparative genomics, bioinformatics, and computational biology to decipher molecular mechanisms in medicinal plants, crop species (used for food, feed, fodder, and biofuels), and plant pathogens.
Maureen McCann of Purdue University, whose research focuses on how plant cell walls can be re-designed to optimize their end-use as sources of fuels, chemicals and materials. Lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant resource but every carbon atom in it is precious. Working with chemists, chemical engineers and other plant biologists, has given Maureen a fresh perspective on the need to discover the most atom-efficient pathways to desired products.
Submit an abstract to be considered for a talk and register by December 1st to take advantage of early bird pricing.
