BIOVEGEN participates in the VII Congress of Plant Genetic Improvement (CMGP)

The VII Congress on Plant Genetic Improvement was successfully held last September 16 to 18 in Zaragoza. BIOVEGEN was in charge of opening the VII Congress on Plant Genetic Improvement with its conference “Science-Business Collaboration Opportunities in Applied Plant Biology: the role of BIOVEGEN”. The talk reviewed the situation of the agricultural sector, agro companies and the scientific community in plant science. Likewise, emphasis was placed on the poor use of Spanish research quality and the need to promote public-private collaboration to increase the profitability of research and business development through collaboration with scientists. Finally, BIOVEGEN's activities were reviewed in terms of generating collaborations and R&D projects.

This edition had 141 attendees from 22 companies and 113 researchers from different Public Research Organizations. In this edition of the Congress, advances in obtaining varieties were presented through various conferences, from classic improvement to the application of new technological tools. Thus, the different aspects of any genetic improvement program were addressed: the obtaining of new varieties that solve the problems that the current ones may present in their cultivation, marketing, transformation, etc. and the current importance that the application of new molecular techniques has in them.

The congress has been organized by the Plant Genetic Improvement Sections of the Spanish Society of Horticultural Sciences (SECH), the Spanish Genetics Society (SEG) and the Agri-Food Research and Technology Center of Aragon. The congress was held at the facilities of the IAMZ (Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza-CIHEAM). The Scientific Sessions addressed the following topics:

• Plant Genetic Resources
• Biotechnology
• Use of germplasm of cultivated and related species in pre-breeding programs
• Integrated Breeding Platform as a useful tool for modern plant breeding
• Corn and brassica improvement
• Improvement of other extensive crops
• Improvement of stone and pome fruit trees
• Horticultural improvement
• Improvement of woody crops
• Variability assessment
• Extensive crops