This is a guest post from Laura Dixon, post-doc at the John Innes Centre.
Monogram, the UK small grains conference, was hosted by the James Hutton Institute in Dundee. The conference, which was attended by scientists, breeders and companies showcased the research projects and technologies recently developed for small grains research. In particular, the conference was used to discuss the best approaches the community could use for utilising the rapid advances in sequencing technologies, such as the wheat affymetric chips and the how to approach more controversial topics including the genetic modification of cereals.
The talks ranged from reporting the latest scientific developments to promoting new technologies and resources including huge germplasm collections. The conference had a strong theme of the progress being made in sequencing and constructing a consensus genetic map in wheat and the complexities faced through the highly repetitive hexaploid genome. This theme was established in the keynote talk from Catherine Feuillet, which linked Monogram and to PlantSci 2013. The conference also played host to the first annual Early Career Researcher in Cereals Award, which was presented to Dr. Christopher Burt from the John Innes Centre for his work on understanding disease resistance in wheat.
Next year’s Monogram conference will be hosted by Rothamsted.
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