Newsroom

December 2011

The ACGT associate network, SABINA, was recently represented by Ella Nyakunu at the Joint Stakeholder Conference of the EU-ACP EDULINK and ACP Science & Technology Programmes. The Conference was held from 26 to 28 of October 2010, at the ACP House in Brussels. (more…)

December 2010

The Southern African Human Genome Programme has recently been successful in securing seed-funding from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to kick-start the work of this ground-breaking national initiative. It is truly a national project which will involve a collaboration between scientists at education institutions, science councils, government and industry. ACGT’s partner institutions will be part of this project.
(more…)

June 2010

Following the success of the 2009 ACGT Regional Plant Biotechnology Forum workshop, the University of Johannesburg (UJ) hosted the Forum’s first scientific meeting on 25 May 2010. (more…)

May 2010

The preliminary 8X draft assembly of the E. grandis genome, which is being sequenced by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), is available from today in our public Eucalyptus Genome Database (EucalyptusDB).   Members of the Eucalyptus research community and the wider plant genomics community are invited to make use of this resource, which is already widely accessed.
Some notes on this release:

1. The genome browser in EucalyptusDB has been updated to Generic Genome Browser (GBrowse) version 2.0.
2. The browser for the preliminary 4.5X (checkpoint) assembly will remain accessible, but is currently also being updated to GBrowse 2.0.
3. The 8X assembly released on EucalyptusDB is the first draft assembly that incorporates all of the Sanger sequences produced for the  E. grandis genome.  The assembly is still being updated and the current release is therefore likely to be incomplete in some regions and will change in the next release.  A more complete draft assembly and draft annotation will be released on Phytozome later in 2010.
4. The draft 8X assembly consists of 6043 genome scaffolds covering 693 Mbp.  This total is somewhat inflated due to the fact that approximately 20% of the genome is currently assembling into two parallel haplotypes (both included in the 693 Mbp) due to very high heterozygosity in some regions of the E. grandis genome.  This will be resolved in the next release of the genome assembly.

The initial analysis of a high quality draft E. grandis genome sequence will be published in 2011.  The principal investigators and collaborators of the E. grandis Genome Project intend to publish genome-wide analyses of features such as genes, protein families, metabolic pathways, non-coding RNA and repetitive DNA in the main genome paper, associated papers and in subsequent publications.  Interested persons are encouraged to contact the principle investigators (Zander Myburg, Dario Grattapaglia or Jerry Tuskan to coordinate collaborative efforts aimed at producing such publications.
We also invite members of the Eucalyptus research community and all other interested persons to register as members on the EUCAGEN website.

Zander Myburg
EUCAGEN COORDINATOR 

April 2010

Sven Bergmann is an Associate Professor at the University of Lausanne in the Department of Medical Genetics, and is affiliated with the Swiss Institute for Bioinformatics. (more…)

The ACGT was recently represented at the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) International technical conference on Agricultural Biotechnologies in Developing Countries (ABDC-10). (more…)

A world-class building promising to be an excellent example of a green building that is both effective and user-friendly will be erected at the University of Pretoria.

A sod-turning ceremony was held at the construction site of the new Plant Science building on Friday 29 January 2010. In her welcoming speech Prof Cheryl de la Rey, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria, described the occasion as symbolic of the successes of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and the University of Pretoria. Prof de la Rey said that this event marked the University’s commitment to 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity and that it was a “celebration of past successes and new beginnings”.
Click here to read more

February 2010 Related info National Health Laboratory Service

The ACGT was recently represented at the annual SAMI (South African Malaria Initiative) Conference 2010 in Cape St Francis. The meeting, which was held from 26 – 28 January, was followed by an open SAMI Steering Committee Meeting. (more…)

November 2009

The ACGT recently hosted an international workshop at the University of Pretoria (UP) aimed at sharing knowledge on the use of molecular tools for cassava breeding – in particular, SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) Marker Technology. The workshop, which was held from 9 – 12 November 2009, was attended by cassava breeders from a range of African countries – including Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi and Uganda – as well as from Brazil.

Organised as part of the CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme (GCP) Cassava Project, the workshop introduced participants to DNA variation and SNP Marker Technology and its applications. Also included as part of the programme was a demonstration of the recently installed Illumina BeadXpress platform at UP.

Cassava is an important root crop in unfavourable environments in poor areas of developing countries and is of both industrial and commercial significance. The crop is often cultivated in dry areas as well as being susceptible to certain devastating pests and diseases such as Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD). As such, there is a great need for research towards improvement of drought tolerance and the combating of disease in cassava.

In keeping with the aims of the GCP Cassava Project, the SNP workshop sought to create a platform for cassava breeders learn about the progress and latest developments in molecular tools and the opportunities that exist for their application in the breeding process.

According to Emmanuel Okogbenin of the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) in Nigeria, the rapid evolution of the genomics of cassava makes it vital for breeders to constantly be aware of the opportunities that are available to them to improve their work. “The workshop has provided a good networking platform. Working together as a community, we will be able to improve access to facilities and the tools needed to enhance speed and efficiency in the breeding process”, he said.

Anthony Pariyo from Uganda – where cassava is the second most important crop after bananas – believes access to cutting-edge technologies like SNP has the potential to revolutionise cassava breeding in his country over the next 20 years. “Previous methods relied solely on the phenotype. Being unable to see what was happening on the inside of the plant made it difficult to keep up with the fast evolution of diseases. From this workshop we have learned about the genotyping and marker support services that are available through GCP. These will help us to move our materials faster and greatly improve efficiency”, said Pariyo.

Applied Biotechnologist, Jedidah Danson from the African Centre for Crop Improvement (ACCI), represented the University of KwaZulu-Natal – where ACCI is running a PhD programme on conventional breeding. According to her, SNP technology adds great value in terms of the volume and quality of data produced. “This technique generates the kind of data that will not only be applicable but invaluable to our students”, she added.

The SABINA network has successfully secured European Union funding for a project which aims to support natural products research and policy development in the Southern African region.

The project, titled Policy and support actions for Southern African Natural Product partnership (POL-SABINA) will receive €950 000 over three years from the EU African, Carribean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) programme.

The activities of POL-SABINA will be directed towards co-ordination and networking in applied research and the development of a knowledge management system (Virtual Research Environment) for SABINA. A major focus will also be on the development of policies to support the scientific use of natural products. This aspect will involve the NEPAD SANBIO office and look at intellectual property issues as well as trans-boundary access and benefit-sharing.

Additional focus areas include the provision of training to the scientific community in research methodology, project management, research fund management and grant writing; linking the SABINA network to policy makers, farmers and entrepreneurs; establishing external peer review and evaluation procedures for SABINA; and extending the nodes to other institutions in SADC region.