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World Potato Congress Inc. Webinar December 15, 2020 at 09:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time – “Developing the Pipeline from Genomics to New Products” with Dr. Mark Taylor

The World Potato Congress is extremely pleased to present its next webinar on December 15, 2020 with Dr. Mark Taylor, Co-leader of Potato Genetics and Molecular Physiology, The James Hutton Institute, UK.

The presentation will highlight some of the challenges in developing new potato varieties that could deliver the full potential of the crop. Recent achievements in overcoming some the obstacles to improving varieties will be reviewed briefly and important traits for the future considered. Approaches to understanding responses to abiotic stresses will be outlined and as an example, results from heat stress experiments will be presented. Central to many aspects of yield development is the control of the potato tuber life cycle, from tuber initiation to sprouting. Recent progress in our understanding of this cycle will be described.

Dr. Taylor completed his undergraduate and PhD studies in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Birmingham. After post-doctoral research at the University of London, Royal Holloway College and University of California, Berkeley, he joined the Scottish Crop Research Institute (predecessor of the James Hutton Institute) in 1989 to lead studies in crop molecular physiology. The main thrust of Mark’s research has been on understanding the molecular basis of quality and developmental traits in potato. A wide range of contemporary approaches, including transcriptomics, and phytochemical analysis, exploiting variation in traits of interest in germplasm collections and using transgenic models as proof of function are being used to investigate quality and developmental traits.

Webinar Registration

The host for this webinar will be WPC Director,
Dr. Nora Olsen (norao@uidaho.edu). To register in advance for this webinar on December 15, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (USA and Canada) go to: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FOGBo0FiS3av6uiOz3EsYA

Following your registration for the webinar, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Upcoming 2021 World Potato Congress Webinars
January 14, 2021 – Mr. Todd Forbush, Storage Systems Engineer, Techmark Inc., USA

February 18, 2021 – Dr. Eugenia Banks, Potato Specialist, Ontario Potato Board, Canada

April 2021 – Dr. Paul Horne, Director/ Entomologist
IPM Technologies Pty Ltd

May 2021 – Albert Schirring, Strategy Lead Vegetables & Potatoes, Bayer AG