The next IUFRO 5th 2.09.02 Working Party Conference (Theme 2: Forests
and Forest Products for a Greener Future) will be held at the Department
of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal, from 10-15 September
2018. The main aim of this conference, titled Clonal Trees in the
Bioeconomy Age: Opportunities and Challenges, is to bring together
specialists and stakeholders interested in different areas of tree
cloning, to exchange ideas and information and to establish new lines of
research for the future. The main topics of the symposium will be:
somatic embryogenesis in trees and other cloning techniques, as well as
physiological, biochemical and molecular aspects of in vitro
morphogenesis in trees. A technical tour and several cultural and social
events (gala dinner, visit to main monuments and a senerade of Fado)
will take place. The organizers of this symposium have the pleasure to
invite all colleagues working in this field to join this meeting, which
will be held, for the first time, in Portugal.
On the last meeting, in La Plata, the importance of plantation forestry was
highlighted as forests are becoming increasingly fragmented and vulnerable in
the context of both anthropic- and climate related pressure. Flexible and
popular, low-cost vegetative propagation methods are considered critical and
well-suited (especially somatic embryogenesis) for both
sustainable plantation forestry and conservation of genetic resources (breeding
and wild populations from marketable or endangered, multipurpose native
species). Application-oriented research efforts in close collaboration with
breeders may allow the careful selection and cost-effective, rapid deployment
(and turn-over) of elite varieties expressing natural or induced adaptation response (endophytes, mycorrhizal
fungus, elicitors, genetic modification) to environmental stress. |
