Missed the Harlan IV symposium? Get our workshop resources here

November 16, 2022

Recently, the fourth international Harlan symposium was held in Brisbane, Australia. The symposium ran alongside TropAg, a conference on tropical and subtropical agriculture.

The Harlan symposia are dedicated to the origins of agriculture and the domestication, evolution, and utilization of genetic resources. They are named in honour of Jack R Harlan, an American botanist and agronomist whose seminal work ‘Crops and Man’ (1975) continues to inspire generations of plant breeding students.

Harlan is recognised for articulating the importance of the relationship between the activity resulting from human development and the evolution of agricultural biodiversity.

Fittingly, Harlan IV and TropAg comprised a program of speakers, workshops and symposia sessions reflecting the theme that science, technology and society can steer the future evolution and utilisation of crop genetic diversity.

This included a workshop hosted by DivSeek, and co-organised with Sally Norton of the Australian Grains Genebank. The workshop was titled ‘Plant Genetic Resources – Initiatives to Harness Biodiversity and Increase Utility’.

The presentation slides from this workshop are now available on our website. Whether you attended our Harlan IV workshop and would like to revisit the content, or if you missed the symposium altogether, all resources are available here:

• DivSeek International Network – dissemination of information about plant genetic resources. Prof Graham King, DivSeek International Network.

 

• DivSeek Australasian Hub. Prof Andy Lowe and Dr Colette Blyth, DivSeek Regional Hub for Australasia.

 

• CePaCT: Conservation and use of Pacific plant diversity for food and health. Ms Logotonu Meleisea Waqainabete, Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees (CePACT), Fiji

 

• Coordination of information platforms to support use of Plant Genetic Resources. Prof Pankaj Jaiswal, Oregon State University, United States

 

• Genebank perspectives on improving efficiencies through using omic technologies. Dr Sally Norton, Australian Grains Genebank, Australia

 

• Collection genomics: Rapid assessment of wild diversity and advances with target capture. Dr Katharina Nargar, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia

 

• Indian National Seed Genebank – Goldmine for future trait-specific genetic resources. Dr Veena Gupta, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, India

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