Agrotechnology Innovation Center (AIC) received a visit from an international seed expert namely Prof. Shri Mohan Jain from the University of Helsinki, Finland and Dr. Maarten van Zonneveld from The World Vegetable Center (AVRDC), a private company engaged in the genetic bank sector (16/11). The arrival of the two seed experts was part of a series of activities at the International Conference on Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, and Biomedical Engineering (BioMIC) 2018 organized by Universitas Gadjah Mada and had been held on October from 19 to 20 at Eastparc Hotel, Yogyakarta. They were scheduled to deliver a public lecture at the Faculty of Agriculture which was attended by graduate students who focus on plant breeding.
In the first session, Dr. Maarten van Zonneveld explained How We Run The World Vegetable Gene Bank. “The basic roles of genetic banks are collection, conservation, and utilization. There are 60,000 accessions available at the AVRDC and we hope that these seeds can be distributed to the global community so that they can meet daily needs”, he said at the classroom 214 in the Rachmiwaty Building, Faculty of Agriculture.
The second lecture was delivered by Prof. Shri Mohan Jain, who is active in Plant Biotechnology and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 when he was still joining the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as a Plant Breeder/Geneticist. He described the Application of Somatic Embryogenesis and reported that somatic embryo cell encapsulation can be applied on the conservation and genetic mutation of plants. “The treatment of elimination of somatic variability in plants can vary. Incorporating new characters encoded by other genes can be applied directly on various cultivated plants so that all beneficial traits can be maintained. For example, nowadays it is very easy to find guava (sweet guava) with a sweet taste but having seeds that are slightly in the fruit” said Prof. Jain closed his lecture.