By invitations of Dr. Pierre Lagoda, Head, Plant Breeding and Genetics, Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, International Atomic Energy Agency, Professor Shu Qingyao attended the Fourth FAO/IAEA Research Coordination Meeting on Coordinated Research Project “Isolation and Characterization of Genes Involved in Mutagenesis of Crop Plants , Vienna, Austria, 5-9 May 2014. After the meeting, Prof. Shu also visited Technical University of Munich on the invitation of Prof. Karl-Heinz Engel, Chair of Food Nutrition and Safety.
The FAO/IAEA coordinated research project focused on the identification and functional analysis of genes involved in mutagenesis, with the aim to establish new mutation induction techniques by increasing mutation induction efficiency. Eleven research groups from Argentina, Austria, Bulgaria, China, India, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland and the US are the participants of this project. During the meeting, the progress made by each group was reported and discussed, the future perspectives were also debated and an outline of work plan was drawn up. Prof. Shu reported on the work of “Isolation and Characterization of Mutant Alleles of Genes Involved in Mutagenesis in Rice”, highlighted the achievement made in the identification and utilization of rice mutants defect in several DNA damage repair related genes. The work was highly commended by the participants. After the meeting, Prof. Shu also briefed Mr. Qu Liang, Director of the FAO/IAEA Joint Division, on the progress made and its prospect on increasing rice mutation breeding efficiency. Mr. Liang hope Zhejiang University will pursue this work further and ultimately produce a technology package for significantly increasing mutation induction efficiency and to be utilized in rice breeding in the Member States of IAEA and FAO.
In April 2014, a grant was awarded to Prof. Shu and Prof. Engel by the Sino-German Science Centre for a joint research project entitled “Characterization of Rice and Soybean Low Phytate Mutant Genes by Means of Metabolite Profiling and Seed Phenomics”(GZ932）. Indeed the two groups have already collaborated bilaterally or multilaterally for nearly 15 years, and have coauthored about 10 papers published in peer-reviewed international journals. During the visit, the two groups reviewed the recent progress on metabolite profiling of a unique rice mutant, discussed the arrangement of additional experiments and manuscript preparation. The work plan and implementation strategy of the joint research project was further discussed and updated, and mutually agreed.
Professor Shu Qingyao(right) attending the FAO/IAEA Project Coordinating Meeting.