The 13th Series Training Course on Genetic Analysis and Plant Breeding held in Colombia

Dr. Jiankang Wang ran the One-week Course on Genetic Analysis and Plant Breeding in Colombia, 24 - 27 June 2014. The course was organized by the CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center) Regional Office at CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture), and was funded by the HarvestPlus Challenge Program of CGIAR. Contents of the course included introductions to population and quantitative genetics, estimation of recombination between two linked loci, construction of genetic linkage maps, principles of QTL mapping and statistical comparison of different mapping methods, identification of quantitative trait genes with additive (and dominance) effects, identification of quantitative trait genes with epistasis effects, QTL by environment analysis, genetic analysis of clonal species including linkage analysis, map construction, and QTL mapping, principles applications of breeding simulation, and use of know genes in plant breeding modeling of plant breeding. This is the first time of the series course to include the genetic analysis of clonal species, which is relevant to many CGIAR mandate crops like cassava, potato, and sweet potatoes etc.

There are forty-one participants from North and South American countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, USA, Mexico, and Guatemala. Dr. Wolfgang Pfeiffer, Deputy Director, HarvestPlus Challenge Program opened the training course; Dr. Joseph Tohme, Agrobiodiversity Research Area Director, CIAT closed the training course. The next course is tentative to be held at CIP (International Center for Potato).