GSR Asian Annual Meeting in Wuhan, 8-9 April, 2010

Green Super Rice: The GSR project held in Wuhan, China.

The GSR project held its Asian Annual Meeting on 8-9 April 2010 in Wuhan, China.

It was attended by Chinese rice scientists and governmental officials, scientists from IRRI and AfricaRice, NARES collaborators, and the GSR project consultants.

The objectives of the meeting are 1) to review the progress and accomplishments of research activities across Asia; 2) to assess the promising GSR materials and their performance in NARES countries; 3) to identify the areas where improvement is needed; 4) to prepare a proper work plan for achieving the next set of milestones; 5) to identify new areas of research that may be in the interest of the collaborating partners; and 6) strengthening the GSR research activities and program for possible extension to the second phase.

The welcome and opening remarks were given by the top officials from the government of China, Huazhong Agricultural University, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and IRRI.

The first day of the meeting includes the updates and accomplishment reports from the scientists from China, IRRI, and NARES of South and Southeast Asia. The first-day meeting was held on the campus of Huazhong Agricultural University.

The second day of the meeting was held in Xiongchu International Hotel. The morning session was for the planning the next-year research activities of the NARES collaborators. In the afternoon session, research planning was done among the Chinese institutes, universities, and seed companies.

Source: http://thegsr.org/index.php/2010/04/gsr-asian-annual-meeting-8-9-april-2010/

Molecular Training Course- Africa Rice Center, Benin Mar 29, 2010

Green Super Rice: A regional training workshop ogranized by Afica Rice to upgrade the capacity of plant breeders from research centers and universities to use research methodologies applied in MAS.

A regional training workshop organized by Africa Rice jointly supported through its Green Super Rice (GSR) project and CORAF/WECARD Project on “Research methods in marker-assisted selection (MAS)” was held in Cotonou, Benin, from 29 Mar to 3 Apr 2010. MAS is a tool that allows the direct application of molecular marker to make plant breeding programs easier and more efficient.

The aim of the workshop was to upgrade the capacity of plant breeders from research centers and universities of 12 African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Uganda) to use research methodologies applied in MAS. Africa Rice and IRD experts served as resource persons for the workshop.

The workshop, which included theoretical and practical sessions, helped the participants gained a better understanding of the importance of molecular markers in breeding. Participants were able to learn various practical techniques relating to DNA extraction, PCR reactions, thermal cycler programming and amplification, PCR product separation on agarose and polyacrylamide gels, gel staining, date scoring and interpretation.

The participants highlighted the importance of forming a network that will enable them to exchange information on MAS-related research activities in the participating countries. They also pointed out the importance of establishing functional biotechnology laboratories in their countries and regional supply system to facilitate procurement of laboratory material.