IAEA/RCA Regional Training Course (RTC) on "Target-selected Mutagenesis and Its Application in Plant Improvement" will be held in 7-16 August 2006 in Hangzhou, China in cooperation with the Government of the People's Republic of China through College of Agriculture and Biotechnology (CAB), Zhejiang University.

The regional project focusing on the enhancement of genetic diversity in food, pulses and oil crops through application of mutation techniques and establishment of mutant germplasm network was initiated in 2002, and is being implemented in 15 participating institutions from 10 Member States. Significant progress has been made during the past few years, with a number of promising mutant varieties being identified through multi-location trials and officially released in the region.
Mutation techniques are considered as the most direct and economical approaches to developing new varieties from well-adapted, locally accepted germplasm of various crops. The rapid development of fundamental biological research and emerging of new biotechnological tools, e.g. molecular market techniques, gene mapping and cloning; Target Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes (TILLING), has further expanded and empowered the usefulness of mutation techniques in crop improvement and functional genomics researches. During the recent Project Progress Review Meetings held 29 Oct to 3 Nov 2004 in Korea and 13-17 March 2006 in Indonesia, the participants (mostly the principal investigators in counterpart institutes) strongly recommended the need for a regional training workshop on these emerging new technologies and their integration into practical mutation breeding and research projects.

At this meeting, focus will be made on providing senior breeders leading research projects with updated knowledge of plant molecular genetics and genomics related to plant breeding, and of the principles of target-selected mutagenesis and its application in crop improvement. The course will also include training on breeding project management, particularly on the integration of modern breeding technologies including mutation techniques and biotechnologies.

Expected outputs from this course are improved knowledge and understanding of modern biotechnologies for mutation induction, characterization and its application in plant breeding, and enhanced skills and expertise on design, management and implementation of plant mutation breeding projects, and enhanced vision and insight on modern plant breeding.

For more information, please contact Mr. Ziqiang WANG, Agronomy Department, Zhejian University, email at nxx.cab@zju.edu.cn or fax to 86 571 86971117