5–7 March 2009, Montpellier, France

• Summary report
• Full report
• Plotting a roadmap towards molecular breeding in the developing world (Feature story, March 2009 HTML | PDF)
• Agenda
• Participant list

Please note that the complete set of workshop presentations are not yet available for public sharing, but will be posted in due course, for cases where we have author permission to do so.

Thursday, 5th March

Introductory session

• MAB: definition and perspectives in the context of the platform user cases (Xavier Delannay, Molecular Breeding Consultant)

Industry perspectives

• Challenges and solutions in marker-assisted breeding (Antoni Rafalski, Dupont)
• PHI Maize Molecular Breeding Programme (Susanne Groh, Pioneer) - PPT cannot be shared publicly
• Syngenta’s views and perspectives on molecular breeding (Gilles Gay/Michel Ragot, Syngenta Seeds)

Public sector perspectives

• Potential and practicality of genome-wide selection in plants (Rex Bernardo, University of Minnesota, USA)
• Marker-assisted breeding in sunflower and peanut, species at opposite ends of the spectrum (Steve Knapp, University of Georgia, USA)
• The molecular breeding experience in maize at 'Le Moulon' (Alain Charcosset, Agropolis-INRA) - PPT not yet available
• Continuing revolutions in plant breeding (Vanessa Cook, Monsanto) - PPT not yet available

The Molecular Breeding initiative
 - Overview

• A Molecular Breeding Platform (Graham McLaren, GCP)

Friday, 6th March

Use cases

• Drought-tolerant maize for Africa (Gary Atlin, CIMMYT)
• Improving sorghum productivity in semi-arid environments of Mali through integrated MARS (Jean-Francois Rami, Agropolis-CIRAD)
• Molecular marker technologies for faster wheat breeding in India (Richard Trethowan, University of Syndney, Australia)

Support Services

• Molecular marker services
  • Genotyping Support Services (Humberto Gomez, GCP)
  • Mobilising biosciences for Africa’s development (Segenet Kelemu, BECA) - PPT not yet available
• Quality assurance for molecular breeding (Carmen de Vicente, GCP)

Analytical & visualisation tools

• Statistical and genetic analysis
  • Statistical modeling of MET/GxE data (Fred van Eeuwijk, WUR, The Netherlands)
  • Simulating marker-assisted recurrent selection in maize under drought and non-drought environments (Jose Crossa, CIMMYT) - PPT cannot be shared publicly
• Selection methodology for molecular breeding and crossing predictions tools (Laurence Moreau, Agropolis-INRA) -
• Role of simulation to support molecular breeding (Mark Dieters, University of Queensland, Australia, and Scott Chapman, CSIRO)
• "Next" generation of decision support tools (Guy Davenport, CIMMYT)