Programme

• Maize genomics and bio-informatics
  
• Breeding
• Phenotyping and gene function
• CRISPR and transgene technologies
• Environmental responses

Prof. dr. Klaas Vandepoele

Vlaams instituut voor Biotechnologie, University of Gent (Belgium)

Title: A map of integrated cis-regulatory elements enhances gene regulatory analysis in maize

​Cis-regulatory elements (CREs) are non-coding DNA sequences that modulate the expression of genes. Their identification is critical to study the transcriptional regulation of genes controlling key traits that govern plant  growth and development. They are also crucial components for the delineation of gene regulatory networks , which are sets of regulatory interactions between transcription factors (TFs) and target genes. In maize, CREs have been profiled using different computational and experimental methods, but the extent to which these methods complement each other in identifying functional CREs remains unclear. Here, we report the data-driven integration of different maize CRE profiling methods to optimize the capture of experimentally-confirmed TF binding sites, resulting in maps of integrated CREs (iCREs) showing increased levels of completeness and precision. We combined the iCREs with gene expression data under drought conditions to perform motif enrichment and infer drought-specific GRNs. Mining these GRNs revealed previously characterized and novel candidate regulators of maize drought response. By studying the transposable elements (TEs) overlapping with iCREs, we identified few TE superfamilies, displaying typical epigenetic features of regulatory DNA, that are involved in wiring specific TF - target gene regulatory interactions. Overall, our study showcases the integration of different omics data sources to generate a high-quality collection of CREs, together with their applicability to better characterize gene regulation in the complex maize genome.

Prof. dr. Xiangnan Li

Northeast Institute of Geography and Acroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (China)

Title: Microbial induced tolerance of maize to abiotic stress.

Prof. dr. Nils Stein

Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plants Research (Germany)

Title: Everything a Maize researcher always wanted to know about Barley

Barley and maize do not compare in their economic importance, however, both species since long play an important role as genetic models in research. In the absence of high-quality genome sequences, there was very limited interest in comparative analyses involving both species. With the genomic revolution and the easy access to pangenomes of both species as well as their respective close relatives it is possibly time to reconsider: could barley and maize researchers take advantage of a better understanding of the respective other research objectives?
I will review the status of genome/pangenome research in barley as well as the available genetic and genomic tools and resources to foster discussions about opportunities of bringing maize and barley research into closer contact.

Dr. Christopher Topp

Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis (USA)

Title: TBA

Dr. Ellen Slaman

​​Vlaams instituut voor Biotechnologie, University of Gent (Belgium)

Title: Advancing Maize Genome Editing with a Rapid Protoplast Prototyping Platform