During May 27th to June 3rd, 2018, Professor Shuijin Zhu led members Tianzhen Zhang, Jinhong Chen, Yan Hu, Lei Fang, Wei Ma, Tianlun Zhao, to attend the “2018 ICGI Conference (ICGI)” in Edinburgh, UK (May 27 -June 3, 2018). The international cotton genome conference (ICGI) is an important international conference on cotton research. More than 80 delegates from the United States, China, Australia, India, Pakistan and other countries attended this conference. Professor John Z Yu, chairman of the ICGI presided over opening ceremony of the conference. The conference contained five topic including cotton breeding and application genomics, structural genomics, germplasm and genetic resources, functional genomics, comparative genomics and bioinformatics. Ten domestic and foreign well-known experts and 52 scholars made the oral reports around cotton genomics, comparative genomics, gene cloning and functional verification, new germplasm collection. Professor Shuijin Zhu chaired the workshop on breeding and applied genomics. Moreover, more than 30 research posters were also displayed for participants to exchange ideas and study.
During the meeting, Professor Tianzhen Zhang served as co-chairman of the International Cotton Genome Initiative (ICGI) made the presentation named “Reference genome sequences of two cultivated allotetraploid cottons”. He introduced our latest progresses on genome sequencing, evolution and domestication of cotton. Dr. Tianlun Zhao carried out an oral presentation named as “Genome-wide analysis of four upland cotton germplasms with different types of pigment glands based on next-generation sequencing” focusing on our important progress on cotton glands at the conference. In addition, the team members have fully communicated with other participants and laid a foundation for further cooperation in the future. Through this conference, we introduced our recent researches to other participants, learned the latest research progress in the field of cotton researches, and understood the frontier development and potential application of genomics technology, which provided a reference for our scientific research in cotton genomics.
