Rob Martienssen, Ph.D, Professor, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY The African oil palm is the most efficient oil bearing crop, but demand for edible oils and biofuels, combined with sustainability concerns over dwindling rainforest reserves, has led to intense pressure to improve oil palm yield. The fruit abnormality, mantled, is a somaclonal variant arising from tissue culture that drastically reduces yield—and has largely halted efforts to clone elite hybrids for oil production. Using epigenome wide association studies, we found that loss of methylation of a LINE retrotransposon related to rice Karma predicts mantled fruit. Identifying “bad Karma” in cloned plantlets ... Read more
Zach Bateson, Ph.D., Research Scientist, National Agricultural Genotyping Center, Fargo, ND Pests and pathogens account for up to 30% of the annual losses in food crops worldwide. All agricultural commodities are negatively impacted by pests, either directly in the field or indirectly through the supply chain. Molecular diagnostics to identify and manage threats in agriculture lag behind diagnostic applications in the medical sciences, despite deep connections between agriculture and human health. In this webinar, I describe the diagnostic biotechnology used at the National Agricultural Genotyping Center (NAGC) and how diagnostic data provide insights into emerging threats across the agricultural community. ... Read more
Doreen Ware, Ph.D., Molecular Biologist, USDA Agricultural Research Service and Adjunct Professor, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York Breeding for 2050 and beyond will require designing plants for new environments and preparing them for new diseases, while they are still offshore. Key to this effort will be access to high-quality genomes and annotations for agricultural species and their pests. The genomes of many plants have been sequenced over the past decade, but these are usually limited to one reference assembly. The available genomes are often fragmented and missing complex repeat regions—and so lack sufficient high-level representation of genes and functional ... Read more
Bio-Rad Laboratories scientists presented gene editing and genotyping lab activities from Bio-Rad’s Out of the Blue CRISPR Gene Editing and Genotyping Extension Kits. Read more
Using CRISPR-Cas9 with Out of the Blue CRISPR Gene Editing and Genotying Kits in the Classroom. Remember: many Bio-Rad products are discounted for K-12 and undergrad classes! More free resources: bio-rad/classroomresources For help visit: bio-rad.com/explorerhelp Read more
Welcome and introductions : Dr. Linnea Fletcher, Department Chair, Biotechnology, Executive Director, AC2 Bio-Link Regional Center and InnovATEBIO National Center, Austin Community College Bio-Manufacturing overview Quality Systems - Basics QA/ QC / Validation : Dr. Jim DeKloe, Professor, Director and Founder of the Industrial Biotechnology program, Solano College. Read more
Protein structure – what do students need to know about proteins as a product : Dr. Jim DeKloe, Professor, Director, and Founder of the Industrial Biotechnology program, Solano College. Read more
