The 9th Workshop welcomed at the Sydney University, Australia

 A three-day workshop on QTL Mapping and Breeding Simulation was held from 7–9 March 2012, at Plant Breeding Institute, The University of Sydney, Cobbitty, Australia. Attended by 35 participants, the trainees included plant geneticists and breeders and graduate students across Australia. This is the 9th of the series workshop on QTL mapping and breeding simulation organized by Dr. Jiankang Wang, GRP-BSU and his team at CAAS. Previous workshops were held in China, Mexico and IRRI. The workshop format included lectures, practice exercises and discussions. The themes covered included: introduction of plant breeding and quantitative genetics; linkage analysis and genetic map construction; QTL mapping methods; and principles of breeding simulation. The practice exercises provided for comments and suggestions on using the QTL IciMapping software and QU-GENE simulation tools, and allowed for closer interaction between the trainers and participants. Primary lecturers at the workshop included Richard Trethowan (University of Sydney), Jiankang Wang (CIMMYT-China and Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences), and Luyan Zhang (Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences). Richard was CIMMYT’s previous wheat breeder, Jiankang is a quantitative geneticist based in Beijing, and Luyan is a consultant working in QTL mapping methodology with Jiankang. For further information, contact: Prof. Richard Trethowan, richard.trethowan@sydney.edu.au or Dr. Jiankang Wang, jkwang@cgiar.org.