IAEA/RCA Training Course on Target-selected Mutagenesis and its Application in Plant Improvement held during 7-16 Aug. 06 at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China was a quality activity that demonstrated IAEA/RCA endeavors for better agricultural production using nuclear techniques.

The RCA Member States with financial and technical support by the IAEA has long been endeavored for enhancing generic diversity in food crops and for establishing mutant germplasm network. The objectives of this project are (1) to use radiation-induced mutation breeding technology combined with biotechnology to develop improved germplasm of food crops, pulses and oil crops, and (2) to establish a Mutant Germplasm Network (MGN) of promising genotypes of selected crops. The regional training course at Zhejiang was so arranged as one of the activities of this project.

The training course covered a wide range of subjects from breeding frontiers in crop improvement, i.e., space-induced mutations for crop improvement, experience in breeding super-rice in China, improvement of functional components in rice, to up-to-date technologies such as gene regulation and functional genomics, technologies for gene chips and gene cloning and the tilling technology. The course was also underlined practical aspects in mutation selection, characterization and breeding applications.

It is noted that the Zhejiang University's Institute of Nuclear-Agricultural Science of the College of Agriculture and Biotechnology (CAB) has been designated by the IAEA (Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications) as an International Collaborating Center in 2004. 18 IAEA supported trainees from BGD, CPR, IND, INS, PAK, MON, ROK, SRL, THA, VIE and other observers have participated in the course.

For more information, please write to Prof. Dr. Ziqiang WANG Secretary-general of Zhejiang Crop Science Society Agronomy Dept., College of Agri.& Biotech, Zhejiang University (ZJU) Email: nxx.cab@zju.edu.cn or wangzq572003@yahoo.com.cn