Gene Editing and Genomics Discussed at UP Los Baños Seminar

Dr. Zachary Lippman of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in New York, USA, and Dr. Byoung-Cheorl Kang of Seoul National University in Seoul, South Korea presented seminars on genome editing and genomics at the Institute of Plant Breeding, University of the Philippines Los Baños on January 23, 2018.

Dr. Lippman discussed a simplistic approach to changing the tomato plant architecture from indeterminate to determinate form by gene editing using CRISPR-Cas9. By studying the genes responsible for the production and activity of the flowering hormone florigen and its counteracting hormone ‘anti-florigen', their study resulted in novel approaches to fine-tuning the inflorescence architecture and manipulating flower production, boosting yields beyond leading commercial varieties.

Dr. Kang, however, worked on hot pepper, the most important vegetable crop in South Korea, and one of the oldest domesticated crops in the Americas. Local and foreign germplasm collections are rich sources of genes and provides variation to create breeding populations with disease resistant traits, using genomics with the rise of next generation sequencing. With genomics and the creation of advanced mapping populations, higher mapping resolution is possible in a shorter time-frame.

For more details about Dr. Lippman's research, visit the CSHL website.