Titre: Introgression breeding for adaptaton to climate change

Summary: Crop wild relatives (CWRs) represent a source of diversity of interest to breeders as they are frequently tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses associated to climate change. We propose a new approach, which we denominate “introgressiomics”. Introgressiomics is aimed at the massive generation of introgression materials for present and future needs. Introgressiomics requires identification of CWRs that represent sources of variation for climate change adaptation and interspecific hybridization. The recurrent use of genomics tools, such as markers scattered over the entire genome and in target genomic areas is essential for developing sets of introgression materials. The ultimate aim of introgressiomics is to provide breeders with a dramatically enlarged genetic pool for breeding for adaptation to climate change scenario.

Biography: Jaime Prohens is Full Professor of Genetics and Plant Breeding at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) since 2009. His research deals with Solanaceae vegetable crops breeding and enhancement, including assessment of diversity, hybridization, molecular markers, genomics, phenomics, quality, resistance to stresses, and evolution. He has co-authored over 150 papers in JCR journals, 60 book chapters and technical publications, and around 300 contributions to congresses, and has developed five varieties of vegetables. He has coordinated or been PI of over 50 research projects and contracts, including several international and H2020 projects. He is associate editor of plant breeding journals like Euphytica and Frontiers in Plant Science section Plant Breeding, as well as member of the editorial board of Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution. He has been senior editor of the Handbook of Plant Breeding series (Springer). During the period 2004-2008 he served as president of EUCARPIA, of which presently is Scientific Secretary. He is director of the Institute for Conservation and Improvement of Valencian Agrodiversity at UPV and is member of the board of the Spanish Society of Genetics. In 2012, He was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca (Romania).