Bayer, sponsor of the 14th Congress of solanaceae and III of cucurbitaceae, held in Valencia

Bayer has participated in the Solanaceae and Cucurbit genomics Congress, held from 3th to 6th September at the Valencia Congress Center, which has brought together more than 400 scientists from all over the world to share experiences and knowledge in the field of the molecular genomics of these two important plant families, with crops as important in Spain as pepper, tomato, eggplant and cucumber, zucchini, melon and watermelon.

Mike Dobres, Head of Breeding of the Bayer Horticultural Seeds Division at EUMEA II, participated in the round table “Genomic research from the point of view of the company”, organized by the professor of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Jaime Prohens, where he explained the impact of genomics on the process of developing new plant varieties and business. He has also presented the open innovation Grant4Traits program through which Bayer provides economic and scientific support to innovative ideas that contribute to this goal. Participants at the round table have agreed on the need for researchers and academics to explain to society new technologies from a more scientific, data, and less emotional point of view.

“We are exploring technologies as promising as CRISPR and we are excited about the possibilities they open, but it will depend a lot on the legal regulation that is made of them as well as the existing social perception”, explained Mike Dobres.

At its stand, Bayer has informed about the Grant4Traits program so that students and universities can participate and contribute innovative projects that translate research into crop protection products that contribute to greater yield, quality and safety for the global agricultural community

Bayer finances the best proposals with prizes ranging from € 2,000 to € 50,000.

Win Vriezen, a scientist at Vegetable Seeds in the Netherlands, has presented the abstract Fine-tuning Gene Functions; Lessons from Tomato Mutants, and explained that “mutations cause genes to have unexpected new functions, in the case of tomato we have discovered that thanks to a new mutation appear more flowers and therefore can bear more fruit”.

Source: Bayer

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