Some More Information about Various Sessions in the Fourth International Plant Tissue Culture Conference
This news is specially meant for those who could not attend the conference in spite of their keen desire to do so. All the sessions as announced in the final circular were held. The topic of each session, the name of the chairman, cochairman and the keynote speaker are stated below:
Session I. Production of horticultural, ornamental, timber and other cash crops through in vitro techniques. The plenary lecture by Dr. T. Adachi was followed by session 1. Professor S. N. Raina, Department of Botany, University of Delhi, India, chaired both sections of session I assisted by two cochairmen; Professor M. M. Haque (Dhaka University) in section IA and Professor S. K. Bhadra (Chittagong University) in section IB. A total of thirteen papers were presented in this session.
Session II. Application of in vitro culture and other breeding techniques for crop improvement. Section II was chaired by Dr. A. K. Sharma at National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India. He was assisted by cochairman Professor Mohammad Nurul Amin (Rajshahi University). Five papers were presented in this session.
Session III. Conservation of biodiversity through in vitro techniques. The chairman of this session was Professor Syed Hadiuzzaman, President BAPTC. The session was co-chaired by Professor B. N. Prasad, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. The main attraction of this session was the keynote speech by Dr. E. R. J. Keller.*
Session IV. Transgenic plants for sustainable crop production. Assisted by Dr. Heiko Kiesecker, Department of Genetics, University of Hannover, Germany, Dr. Swapan K. Datta chaired the session. The keynote speech delivered by Dr. Heiko Kiesecker was the main attraction of this session*.
Session V. Use of molecular markers for crop improvement. The session was presided by Dr. Mohsin U. Patwary, Department of Biology, Medgar College of the City University of New York, Brooklyn, New York. The cochairman of the session was Professor Haseena Khan, Departent of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, DU. The session was highlighted by Professor Raina's keynote speech.*
Session VI. Biosafety and IPR Management issues in developing countries. The session was chaired by Dr. M. Serajul Islam, Formerly member of Bioscience, Atomic Energy Commission, Dhaka, with Professor Zeba I. Seraj, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, DU, as cochairman. The keynote speaker in the session was Dr. Naiyyum Chowdhury.*
Session VII. Display of posters. All the posters on display were very well presented and drew a large number of viewers both among participants and local students. Posters on molecular markers to screen multiple-gene-controlled (QTL) traits such as salinity in rice stole the show.
(*see below for affiliation of the speaker and the title of each keynote speech.)
