Tentative Conference programme
| July 21 | ||
| Arrival | ||
| 15:00 | Registration | |
| 19:00 | Welcome reception with finger food | |
| July 22 | ||
| 06:00 | Game drive with breakfast | |
| 09:30 | ||
| opening session | ||
| 10:00 | Conference opening | Jens Kossmann (Institute of Plant Biotechnology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa) |
| 10:05 | Official opening | Arnold van Zyl, ( Stellenbosch University, South Africa) |
| 10:15 | Plant Biotech and Developing Countries | Marc van Montagu (Institute of Plant Biotechnology for Developing Countries, Gent University, Belgium) |
| 10:45 | Tropical Crop Biotechnology | Sagadevan Mundree (Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, Brisbane, Australia) |
| 11:15 | Tea Break | |
| Plenary Session on Tropical Crop Biotechnology | Chair Rainer Hoefgen | |
| 11:45 | Golden Rice |
Gerard Barry (International Rice Research Institute, Los Banos, Laguna, Phillipines) |
| 12:15 | Insect Protected Cowpea with a Bt Gene |
TJ Higgins (CSIRO Plant Industry, Canberra, Australia) |
| 12:45 | Eucalyptus Genomics for Renewable Energy and Fibre Production |
Zander Myburg (Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, Pretoria University, South Africa) |
13:15 |
Lunch | |
| 14:30 | Sexual Reproduction of Sugarcane in Commercial Fields: Understanding for The Development of GM Sugarcane | Graham Bonnett (CSIRO Plant Industry, Canberra, Australia) |
| 15:00 | Cassava Biotechnology | Richard Visser (Department of Plant Breeding, |
| 15:30 | Syngenta’s Approaches to Tropical Crops for Feed, Food and Fuel | Simon Warner (Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc., Research Triangle Park, USA) |
| 16:00 | Tea Break | |
| Plenary Session on Molecular Plant Physiology | Chair Uwe Sonnewald | |
| 16:30 | Starch Metabolism | Sam Zeeman (Institute of Plant Sciences, ETH Zurich, Switzerland) |
| 17:00 | Plant Desiccation Tolerance | Jill Farrant (Molecular and Cell Biology Department, University of Cape Town, South Africa) |
| 17:30 | Vascular Transport in Plants: Coupling Kinetic Models and Advection-Diffusion Equations to Simulate Sucrose Accumulation in Sugarcane | Johann Rohwer (Department of Biochemistry, Stellenbosch University, South Africa) |
| 18:00 | Engineering Increased Sucrose Yield in Sugarcane | James Lloyd (Institute of Plant Biotechnology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa) |
| 19:00 | Dinner | |
| July 23 | ||
Networking Tours |
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| 19:00 | Braai (Barbecue) | |
July 24 |
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| 8:00 | Coffee | |
Parallel Session on Capacity Building and Biosafety |
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| 8:30 | Integrating Biosafety into a Biotechnology Research and Development Program | Hennie Groenewald (Biosafety South Africa, Somerset West, South Africa) |
| 8:50 | Appraisal of the Governance of Risk Assessment Policies for Food Safety in South Africa | Wilna Jansen van Rijssen (FoodNCropBio, Pretoria, South Africa) |
| 9:10 | Development and Harmonisation of GMO Detection Procedures – An Overview of EU Activities Including Capacity Building | Guy van den Eede (European Commission-Joint Research Centre, Institute for Health and Consumer Protection, Isras, Italy) |
| 9:30 | Delayed and Disparate Biosafety Frameworks in Africa: Precaution or Deterrent in Biotech Crop Adoption? | Wynand van der Walt (FANRPAN, Pretoria, South Africa) |
| 9:50 | Growing Bt White Maize in South Africa, with Special Reference to the Developing Small-Scale Farmer | David Keetch (AfricaBio, Centurion, South Africa) |
Parallel Session on Tropical Crop Genetics, Genomics and |
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| 8:30 | In vitro Culture of Sugarcane: A Review of Applications in South Africa | Sandy Snyman (South African Sugarcane Research Institute, Durban, South Africa) |
| 8:50 | Determining the Carotene Levels in East African Highland Banana and Banana Varieties from Papua New Guinea | Michael Pillay (University of South Africa, Florida, Gauteng, South Africa) |
| 9:10 | Role of Biotechnology in Improvement of Banana | Leena Tripathi (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Kampala, Uganda) |
| 9:30 | Domestication of Tylosema esculentum (marama bean) as a Crop for Southern Africa: Climate Change Triggering the Need for Crop Diversification | Percy Chimwamurombe (Department of Biological Sciences, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia) |
| 9:50 | The Molecular Analysis of the Effects of the Rhizosphere Signal Molecule Lumichrome as a Plant Growth Promoter | Liezel Gouws (Institute of Plant Biotechnology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa) |
| 10:10 | Tea Break | |
Parallel Session on Molecular Interactions of Plants with Biotic Stresses |
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| 10:40 | Rational Design and Improvement of Plant Cystatins for Improved Pest Resistance in Plants | Juan Vorster (Department of Plant Science, Pretoria University, South Africa) |
| 11:00 | Morphological Characterisation of African Eggplant Germplasm in Africa | Michael Osei (CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Kumasi, Ghana) |
| 11:20 | African Cassava Mosaic Virus from Cameroon Encodes Sequences that Induce Host Resistance to Cassava Geminiviruses | Vincent Fondong (Department of Biological Sciences, Delaware State University, Dover, USA) |
| 11:40 | Sugarcane Yellow Leaf Syndrome: Sanitary State of Saccharum sp. Varieties in Morocco and Elimination of ScYLV by Tissue Culture Visualized by TBIA | Atmane Rochdi (Unit Ecophysiology and Biotechnologies, Ibn Tofail University, Morocco) |
| 12:00 | Manipulation of Pearl Millet Defence Gene Expression by the Rust Fungus Puccinia substriata | Bridget Crampton (CSIR Biosciences, Pretoria, South Africa) |
| Parallel Session on Tropical Crop Genetics, Genomics and Molecular Biology II |
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| 10:40 | Influence of High Night Temperature on Growth Performance and Metabolism of Rice | Ellen Zuther (MPI of Molecular Plant Physiology, Potsdam, Germany) |
| 11:00 | Salt Tolerant Callus Cell Lines in Citrus Rootstocks Troyer Citrange | Houda el Yacoubi (Unit Ecophysiology and Biotechnologies, Ibn Tofail University, Morocco) |
| 11:20 | Validation of a Cowpea cDNA Drought Expression Library using SSH Screen Software and qRT-PCR | Inge Gazendam (Vegetable and Ornamental Plant Institute, ARC-Roodeplaat,Pretoria, South Africa) |
| 11:40 | Eco-geographical Distribution of Some Macadamia Genotypes in Kenya and its Effect on Germplasm Diversity | Lucy Gitonga (Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, Thika, Kenya) |
| 12:00 | Production of a Novel Biopolymer in Sugarcane | Sandile Ndimande (Institute of Plant Biotechnology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa) |
| 12:20 | Poster Session | |
| 13:00 | Lunch | |
Plenary Session on Plant Protection |
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| 14:00 | Plant-Biotrophic Fungus Interactions | Shauna Somerville (Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, UC Berkeley, USA) |
| 14:30 | Systematic Functional Genomic Analysis of Fusarium Wilt Disease | John Manners (CSIRO Plant Industry, Canberra, Australia) |
| 15:00 | Plant-Virus Interactions | Uwe Sonnewald (Department of Biochemistry Erlangen University, Germany) |
| 15:30 | Single Gene Resistance to Ralstonia solanacearum, the Bacterial Wilt Pathogen of Many Tropical Crops | Dave Berger (Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institue, Pretoria University, South Africa) |
| 16:00 | Coffee | |
| Plenary Session on Alternative Products | ||
| 16:30 | Plant derived vaccines | Inga Hitzeroth (Molecular and Cell Biology Department, University of Cape Town, South Africa) |
| 17:00 | Ethnobotany | Noks Makunga (Botany and Zoology Department (Stellenbosch University, South Africa) |
| 17:30 | Isoflavonoids | Eugenio Butelli (John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK) |
| 18:00 | Alternative Sugars for Food Applications | Anne Rae (CSIRO Plant Industry, Canberra, Australia) |
| 18:30 | Developing Sugarcane as a Biofactory to Produce Plastics | Richard McQualter (Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Queensland University, Brisbane, Australia) |
| 19:00 | Dinner | |
| July 25 | ||
| 08:30 | Coffee | |
| Plenary Session on Enhancing the Nutritional Value of Plant Products | ||
| 9:00 | The African Biofortified Sorghum Project: Progress in Nutritional Fortification of a Key African Cereal Staple | Rachel Chikwamba (CSIR Pretoria, South Africa) |
| 9:30 | Towards Nutritional Quality Improvement in Rice | Rainer Hoefgen (MPI of Molecular Plant Physiology, Potsdam, Germany) |
| 10:00 | Biofortification of Bananas | Mark Harrison (Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane Australia) |
| 10:30 | Tea Break | |
| Plenary Session Interfacing Food Security and Alternative Uses of Plants | ||
| 11:00 | Crops for Biofuels | Chris Somerville (Energy and Biosciences Institute, UC Berkeley, USA) |
| 11:30 | Sugarcane as Biofactory | Frikkie Botha (Sugar Research and Development Corporation, Brisbane, Australia) |
| 12:00 | Applying Integrated Biotechnological Approaches for the Improvement of Tropical Crops | Mike Butterfield (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Andhra Pradesh, India) |
| 12:30 | The Future of Plant Biotech in the Tropics | Jennifer Thomson (Molecular and Cell Biology Department, University of Cape Town, South Africa) |
| 13:00 | Close of Conference | Barbara Huckett (South African Sugarcane Research Institute, Durban, South Africa) |
| 13:05 | Lunch | |
| 19:00 | Dinner |