International symposium on induced mutations in higher plants

Vienna, Austria (August 12-15, 2008)

Organised by the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, this will be the 8th in its symposium series dedicated to harnessing and disseminating information on current trends in induced mutagenesis in higher plants. The first and last symposia were held in 1969 and 1995 respectively. Topics to be addressed in the symposium include 'Induced mutations in crop breeding programs: integration with molecular, bio- and other relevant technologies' and 'Mutation induction, targeted selection and mutated genes in functional genomics'. For more information, please contact: p.lagoda(at)iaea.org

-Molecular genetics and biology of physical, chemical and transposon-induced mutagenesis

-New mutation techniques, e.g. ion beam implantation, and their integration with other molecular and biotechnological techniques

-Induced mutations in crop breeding programmes

-Mutation induction for gene discovery and functional genomics, including targeting induced local lesions in genomes (TILLING) and other reverse genetic strategies

-Mutational analysis of important crop characters (tolerance to abiotic stresses, resistance to diseases and insects, quality and nutritional characters, etc.)

-Socio-economic impact of widespread mutant varieties.

More: http://www-naweb.iaea.org/nafa/pbg/news-pbg.html