
IWC 2024 Program
Saturday 21 September 2024
The Wheat Initiative Expert Working Group (EWG) Meetings (Open to pre-registered delegates only)
Location: Cliftons Meeting Room Solutions, Parmelia House, 191 St George’s Terrace, Perth WA 6000
Sunday 22 September 2024
07:30 - 18:00 | Registration Open |
09:00 – 12:00 | Pre-Congress Workshops |
09:00 - 12:00 | Wheat Initiative Research Committee Meeting (Invitation only) |
09:00 - 12:00 | Wheat Initiative Scientific Board Meeting (Invitation only) |
09:00 - 12:00 | Wheat Initiative Board Meeting (Invitation only) |
12:00 -13:00 | Lunch |
13:00 - 16:30 | Pre-Congress Workshops |
13:00 - 16:30 | Wheat Initiative Combined Meeting (Invitation only) |
17:00 - 19:00 | Inaugural Session |
Welcome to Country Aunty Marie Taylor | |
Congress Welcome | |
Opening remarks Prof Andrew DeeksVice Chancellor & President, Murdoch University, Australia | |
Official opening Hon Darren West MLC Member for Agricultural Region, Western Australia | |
GRDC's perspectives Mr Nigel Hart Managing Director, Grains Research and Development Corporation, Australia | |
WA Agriculture Perspectives Ms Heather Brayford Director General, Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Western Australia | |
International wheat perspectives Dr Bram GovaertsDirector General, CIMMYT, Mexico | |
International research collaboration for R&D Prof Wendy Umberger CEO, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Australia | |
Inaugural talk Prof Peter Langridge AM Chair of Scientific Board, Wheat Initiative, Germany | |
Vote of thanks Ms Anu Chitikineni Senior Manager, Centre for Crop and Food Innovation, Murdoch University, Australia | |
19:00 - 21:00 | Welcome Reception - Sponsored by the Food Futures Institute |
Monday 23 September
08:30 - 10:30 | Plenary Session 1: Advancing wheat genomics: molecular markers to haplotype-resolved genomes and beyond |
Co-Chairs: | Prof Rajeev Varshney, Murdoch University, Australia Dr Sarrah Ben M'Barek, Regional Field Crop Research Centre of Beja, Tunisia |
08:30 - 08:50 | Feed the future: genomic technologies for wheat improvement Prof Curtis Pozniak, University of Saskatchewan, Canada |
08:50 - 09:10 | A walk on wheat’s wild side
Prof Julie King, University of Nottingham, UK |
09:10 - 09:25 | De-novo annotation of the wheat pangenome reveals complexity and diversity of the
3rd International Wheat Congress hexaploid wheat pan-transcriptome
Dr Thomas Lux, Helmholtz Munich/PGSB, Germany |
09:25 - 09:40 | The platinum-quality Svevo reference genome assembly: A new tool for advanced plant
breeding
Prof Luigi Cattivelli, CREA Research Centre for Genomics and Bioinformatics, Italy |
09:40 - 09:55 | Switches in homoeolog expression bias in hexaploid wheat are associated with cis-variation
Dr Philippa Borrill, John Innes Centre, UK |
09:55 - 10:10 | History of the bread wheat D genome
Prof Simon Krattinger, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia |
10:10 - 10:25 | Wheat spike development and its impact on grain number per spike
Dr Jorge Dubcovsky, University of California, USA |
10:25 - 10:30 | Open |
10:30 - 11:00 | Morning Tea - Sponsored by Inari |
11:00 - 12:30 | Plenary Session 2: Exploring wheat's diversity, evolution and genetic reservoirs |
Co-Chairs: | Dr Matthew Hayden, Agriculture Victoria Research/ La Trobe University, Australia
Dr Parveen Chunneja, Punjab Agricultural University, India |
11:00 – 11:20 | Exploiting natural diversity for wheat breeding
Prof Cristobal Uauy, John Innes Centre, UK |
11:20 – 11:40 | Exploring natural variation patterns in agronomic traits using a lineage-based viewpoint in Aegilops tauschii Coss. Dr Yoshihiro Matsuoka, Kobe University, Japan |
11:40 – 11:55 | Discovering the Aegilops genomes
Dr Sylvie Cloutier, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canada |
11:55 – 12:10 | Do wild species help to improve the quantitative traits of wheat?
Dr Hisashi Tsujimoto, Tottori University, Japan |
12:10 – 12:25 | Developing the tetraploid wheat pangenome for wheat research and breeding: Triticum
turgidum diversity unraveled.
Assoc Prof Marco Maccaferri, Università Di Bologna, Italy |
12:25 -12:30 | Open |
12:30 – 13:30 | Lunch – Sponsored by Genomics WA |
13:30 – 15:00 | Plenary Session 3: Innovative and conventional approaches for wheat breeding (Sponsored by The University of Queensland) |
Co-Chairs: | Dr Juan Juttner, Grains Research and Development Corporation, Australia
Dr Taner Sen, USDA-ARS, USA |
13:30 – 13:50 | More wheat breeding investment for more wheat breeding impact
Dr Haydn Kuchel, Australian Grain Technologies (AGT), Australia |
13:50 – 14:10 | Better understanding genome diversity for more e"cient gene discovery and breeding in
wheat
Prof Xue Yong Zhang, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), China |
14:10 – 14:25 | Controlling homologous and homoeologous recombination in bread wheat to enhance
development of new wheat varieties
Dr Pierre Sourdille, INRAE UMR GDEC Clermont-Ferrand, France |
14:25 – 14:40 | Optimizing wheat root traits for carbon sequestration: A multidisciplinary approach from
controlled environment to field
Dr Charlotte Rambla, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, USA |
14:40 – 14:55 | Comparisons of phenotypic vs genomic selection on yield in US winter wheat from multiple
environments
Dr Shuyu Liu, Texas A&M University, USA |
14:55 – 15:00 | Open |
15:00 – 15:30 | Afternoon Tea – Sponsored by Inari |
15:30 – 17:00 | Panel Discussion I: Wheat Breeding Organisations |
Co-Chairs: | Ms Tress Walmsley, InterGrain Pty Ltd, Australia
Dr Darshan Sharma, WA DPIRD, Australia |
Australia
Dr Bertus Jacobs, LongReach Plant Breeders Dr Tristan Coram, Australian Grain Technologies Ms Tress Walmsley, InterGrain | |
New Zealand
Ms Sarah Whiteman, PGG Wrightson Seeds | |
China
Dr Zhonghu He, CAAS/ CIMMYT | |
India
Dr Rattan Tiwari, ICAR- Indian Institute of Wheat & Barley Research | |
Europe
Dr Jacob Lage, KWS Momont Recherche S.A.R.L., France | |
UK
Dr Chris Burt, RAGT Seeds, UK | |
North America
Dr Dylan Larkin, Limagrain, USA | |
South America
Dr Ivana Sabljic, GDM Seeds, Brazil | |
General discussion | |
17:00 – 17:30 | Free time |
17.30 – 19.00 | Poster session along with Sundowner – Sponsored by PacBio & Millenium Sciences |
Tuesday 24 September 2024
08:30 – 10:30 | Plenary Session 4: Improving abiotic stress tolerance in wheat |
Co-Chairs: | Prof Bettina Berger, University of Adelaide, Australia
Prof John Spink, Teagasc – The Agriculture and Food Development Authority, Ireland |
08:30 – 08:50 | Combining complex traits to improve abiotic stress tolerance in wheat
Prof Matthew Reynolds, CIMMYT, Mexico |
08:50 – 09:10 | Fine-tuning floral adaptation in hexaploid bread wheat
Dr Laura Dixon, University of Leeds, UK |
09:10 – 09:25 | Establishing a robust long-term field screening site for the identification of frost tolerance
in wheat
Dr Brenton Leske, WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Australia |
09:25 – 09:40 | Pre- and post-anthesis heat waves impact on yield under field conditions
Dr Roxana Savin, University of Lleida – AGROTECNIO-CERCA Center, Spain |
09:40 – 09:55 | Breeding nutrient-dense, climate resilient and biotic/abiotic stress resistant/tolerant wheat
varieties for Western Himalayas of India
Dr Rebecca Thistlethwaite, The University of Sydney, Australia |
09:55 – 10:10 | High-throughput phenomics and multiomics of the pan-wheat cultivars reveal response
plasticity to moderate drought stress
Dr Angela Juhasz, Edith Cowan University, Australia |
10:10 – 10:25 | Innovative strategies for advancing wheat genetic improvement utilizing synthetic
hexaploid Dr Susanne Dreisigacker, CIMMYT, Mexico |
10:25 – 10:30 | Open |
10:30 – 11:00 | Morning Tea – Sponsored by Elders |
11:00 – 12:30 | Plenary Session 5: Enhancing wheat resistance against biotic stresses |
Co-Chairs: | Prof Evans Lagudah, CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Australia
Dr Nicole Thompson, South Australian Research & Development Institute, Australia |
11:00 – 11:20 | Wheat rust resistance genes: R we there yet?
Assoc Prof Brande Wulff, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia |
11:20 – 11:40 | Molecular diversity in wheat – fungal pathogen interactions as a basis of novel breeding
strategies
Prof Beat Keller, University of Zürich, Switzerland |
11:40 – 11:55 | Dissecting resistance to wheat fungal diseases by leveraging on the wide tetraploid wheat
germplasm diversity
Dr Elisabetta Mazzucotelli, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Italy |
11:55 – 12:10 | Editing of host susceptibility factor genes increased wheat yellow mosaic virus resistance
without yield penalty
Prof Ping Yang, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China |
12:10 – 12:25 | Unleashing genetic potential: Battling Fusarium crown rot in Australia
Dr Zhi Zheng, CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Australia |
12:25 – 12:30 | Open |
12:30 - 13:30 | Lunch – Sponsored by MDPI |
13:30 - 15:00 | Plenary Session 6: Developing climate-smart wheat in the context of abiotic stresses |
Co-Chairs: | Prof Stephen Powles, The University of Western Australia, Australia |
13:30 – 13:50 | Seeds for change: production-oriented wheat research from Australia to the world. Prof Alison Bentley, Australian National University, Australia |
13:50 – 14:05 | Predicting G×E and defining Australian wheat mega-environments using factor analytic
mixed models and environmental covariates
Dr Nick Fradgley, CSIRO, Australia |
14:05 – 14:20 | High-throughput image-based phenotyping to predict crop performance in new
environments and genotypes in breeding
Dr Lukas Roth, ETH Zurich, Switzerland |
14:20 – 14:35 | Thermally safe flowering window for wheat: Learning from data to inform breeding targets
Dr Fernanda Dreccer, CSIRO, Australia |
14:35 – 14:50 | Dissecting the durum wheat QTLome for drought-adaptive traits
Prof Roberto Tuberosa, Università Di Bologna, Italy |
14:50 – 15:00 | Open |
15:00 – 15:30 | Afternoon Tea – Sponsored by Elders |
15:30 – 17:00 | Panel Discussion II: Wheat Production, Research, & Trade in Major Wheat Growing Geographies |
Co-Chairs | Mr Peter Bird, Grains Research & Development Corporation, Australia Dr Sandra Milach, CIMMYT, Mexico |
Australia | Ms Courtney Draper, AEGIC, Australia
Mr Richard Simonaitis, Grains Australia, Australia |
India | Dr Himanshu Pathak, ICAR, India |
China | Prof Luxiang Liu, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences CAAS, China |
USA | Prof Bikram Gill, Kansas State University, USA |
Europe | Dr Frank Ordon, Julius Kühn-Institut, Germany |
Africa/Ethiopia | Dr Negash Gelata Ayana, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Ethiopia |
South America | Dr Daniel Calderini, Universidad Austral de Chile, Chile |
General discussion | |
17:00 - 17:30 | Free time |
17:30 - 19:00 | Poster session along with Sundowner |
Wednesday 25 September 2024
07:00 – 08:30 | IWC Women in Triticum Breakfast Meeting |
08:30 – 10:30 | Plenary Session 7: Ensuring sustainable wheat production through innovations in agronomy, crop management and digital agriculture |
Co-Chairs: | Dr Andrew Fletcher, CSIRO, Australia
Dr Silvia German, National Agricultural Research Institute, Uruguay |
08:30 – 08:50 | Success from system synergies: using G x E x M approaches to transform future wheat
production Dr John Kirkegaard, CSIRO, Australia |
08:50 – 09:10 | Retrospects and prospects of the Ethiopian wheat seed industry: Implications to
sustainable wheat production
Dr Karta Kalsa, TMSR (EIAR), Ethiopia |
09:10 – 09:25 | Nitrogen management and agronomic performance in winter wheat
Dr Gavin Humphreys, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Canada |
09:25 – 09:40 | Wheat yield progress NW Mexico: A bellwether for lower latitude yields around the world
Dr Tony Fischer, RSB ANU, Australia |
09:40 – 09:55 | Short-season winter wheat: A new strategy to build resilient and diverse cropping systems
Dr Amanda De Oliveira Silva, Oklahoma State University, USA |
09:55 – 10:10 | Interactive e$ects of eCO2 and mycorrhization on plant performance are host-species or
cropping pattern dependent
Prof Xinhua He, Sichuan Agricultural University, China |
10:10 – 10:25 | Protein dilution in wheat – future agronomy and reality for Western Australian production
systems
Dr Dion Nicol, Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development WA, Australia |
10:25 – 10:30 | Open |
10:30 – 11:00 | Morning Tea |
11:00 – 1230 | Plenary Session 8: Collaboration, social and economic impacts of wheat research
|
Co-Chairs: | Dr Michael Robertson, CSIRO, Australia
Prof Mark Gibberd, CCDM/ Curtin University, Australia |
11:00 – 11:20 | Managing the Global Risk of Wheat Disease Epidemics: Innovations and Collaborations for
Sustainable Wheat Production
Prof Marcelis Acevedo, Cornell University, USA |
11:20 – 11:35 | Harvesting hope: The East African wheat transformation Dr Sridhar Bhavani, CIMMYT, Mexico |
11:35 – 11:50 | Socio-economic impact of improved wheat varieties at farmers’ field in India – An
experimental approach
Dr Ramadas Sendhil, Pondicherry University, India |
11:50 – 12:05 | Wheat breeding and scaling in Africa: Challenges and opportunities from ICARDA’s
perspective
Dr Wuletaw Tadesse, ICARDA, Syria |
12:05 – 12:20 | The CAIGE program – A valuable source of genetic resistance to several wheat diseases
Dr Julie Nicol, University of Sydney, Australia |
12:20 – 12:30 | Open |
12:30 – 13:20 | Lunch |
13:30 – 15:00 | Special Session 11: Early Career Researchers presentations |
Co-Chairs: | Dr Colin Cavanagh, BASF, Australia
Prof Alison Bentley, Australian National University, Australia |
13:30 – 13:37 | Spike-branching wheat: Hype or hope?
Dr Ragavendran Abbai, Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Germany |
13:37 – 13:44 | Exploring basal spikelet infertility through spatial transcriptomics
Mr Maximillian Jones, John Innes Centre, UK |
13:44 – 13:51 | Unlocking the secrets of female fertility in wheat for improved hybrid seed production
Dr Marina Millán Blánquez, Laboratoire Reproduction Et D’eveloppement Des Plantes (rdp-lyon), France |
13:51 – 13:58 | Candidate loci and evolutionary insights on yellow rust resistance in an Asian wheat NAM
population
Ms Katharina Jung, University of Zurich, Switzerland |
13:58 – 14:04 | Why stabilizing grain proteins can help modern wheat agriculture
Dr Hui Cao, The University of Western Australia, Australia |
14:04 – 14:11 | Beyond the genome: A pan-transcriptome for Aegilops tauschii
Dr Samuel Holden, University of British Columbia, Canada |
14:11 – 14:18 | Unveiling the mechanism of the Sr62 wheat tandem kinase
Dr Renjie Chen, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia |
14:18 – 14:25 | Overcoming genotypic dependency and bypassing immature embryo in wheat
transformation by using morphogenic regulators
Ms Ziru Zhou, Huazhong Agricultural University, China |
14:25 – 14:32 | Integrating uas phenomic data into the Texas A&M winter wheat breeding program
Ms Shannon Baker, Texas A&M Agrilife Research, USA |
14:32 – 14:39 | Unravelling the genetic basis of heat tolerance in wheat
Mr Rakshith Gowda, Murdoch University, Australia |
14:39 – 14:46 | Gene editing of upstream open reading frames to investigate novel iron biofortification
strategies in wheat
Mr Oscar Carey-Fung, The University of Melbourne, Australia |
14:46 – 14:55 | Temperature and photoperiod interaction: Releasing aerial branching in wheat
Ms Isabel Faci, John Innes Centre, UK |
14:55 – 15:00 | Open |
15:00 – 16:00 | Poster Session |
16:00 – 17:30 | ECR & Student Career Pathways Panel and Networking Social Event |
17:30 – 19:00 | Free Time |
19:00 – 23:00 | Congress Dinner – Sponsored by Australian Genome Research Facility (AGRF) |
Thursday 26 September 2024
08:30 – 10:30 | Plenary Session 9: Wheat quality, end-use processing and value addition for human health and nutrition |
Co-Chairs: | Dr Dion Bennett, Australian Grain Technologies, Australia
Dr David Tabah, InterGrain Pty Ltd, Australia |
08:30 – 08:50 | Breakthroughs in International Wheat Quality Research: Success Stories from the EWG on
Improving Wheat Quality for Enhancing Wheat for Processing and Health
Prof Carlos Guzman, University of Córdoba, Spain |
08:50 – 09:10 | Black wheat: Biofortfication to public health intervention
Dr Monika Garg, National Agri-Biotechnology Institute, India |
09:10 – 09:25 | Amylose content of wheat flour noodles e!ects postprandial satiety and glycaemic
response in healthy adults
Dr Wendy Hunt, Murdoch University, Australia |
09:25 – 09:40 | Genetic variation for mineral uptake and partitioning in the Watkins germplasm collection
Prof Malcolm Hawkesford, Rothamsted Research, UK |
09:40 – 09:55 | Increasing micronutrient retention and bioavailability through processing and genetic
improvement
Dr Maria Itria Ibba, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Mexico |
09:55 – 10:10 | Understanding starch granule formation in wheat for improved nutritional and functional
quality
Dr David Seung, John Innes Centre, UK |
10:10 – 10:25 | Health-promoting and technological properties of novel durum wheat materials and
derived foods
Dr Barbara Laddomada, ISPA CNR, Italy |
10:25 – 10:30 | Open |
10:30 – 11:00 | Morning Tea |
11:00 – 12:30 | Plenary Session 10: New horizons for advancing wheat research (Sponsored by The
University of Queensland) |
Co-Chairs: | Prof Ian Small, The University of Western Australia, Australia
Dr Mao Long, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, China |
11:00 – 11:20 | Bridging Continents: Collaborative Innovations in Genome Editing for Wheat Breeding in
Australia
Dr Melissa Garcia, INARI, USA |
11:20 – 11:35 | A phase-separated protein hub modulates resistance to Fusarium head blight in wheat
Prof Gang Li, Nanjing Agricultural University, China |
11:35 – 11:50 | The application of short-read and long-read RNA sequencing and high-resolution
phenotyping to analyse wheat-pathogen interactions
Dr Fatima Naim, Curtin University, Australia |
11:50 – 12:05 | Source-sink relationships in the context of wheat yield improvement
Prof Tsu-Wei Chen, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany |
12:05 – 12:20 | Faststack: An AI-guided breeding for wheat genetic improvement
Dr Eric Dinglasan, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation – The University of Queensland, Australia |
12:20 – 12:30 | Discussion |
12:30 – 13:30 | Lunch & Poster Displays |
13:30 – 15:00 | Panel Discussion III: Capacity Building/ Inspiring next generation Scientists |
Co-Chairs: | Prof Kadambot Siddique, The University of Western Australia, Australia
Prof Hirokazu Handa, Kyoto Prefectural University, Japan |
Crawford Fund | Adj Prof Cathy Reade, Director of Outreach and NextGen Program, The Crawford Fund, Australia |
APAARI, Asia | Dr Ravi Khetrapal, Executive Director, Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research
Institutions (APAARI), Thailand |
WACCI, Africa | Prof Eric Danquah, Founding Director WACCI, Ghana |
CIMMYT, Malawi | Dr Veronica Guwela, Wheat Wide Crossing Scientist, CIMMYT, Malawi |
IAEA | Dr Pooja Mathur, Head,FAO- IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) , Austria |
Wheat Initiative | Ms Teresa Saavedra-Bravo, Program Manager, Wheat Initiative, Germany |
Discussion | |
15:00 – 15:30 | Afternoon Tea |
15:30 – 17:00 | Closing Ceremony |
Wrap-up
Prof Rajeev VarshneyDirector, Centre for Crop and Food Innovation and State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre, Murdoch University, Australia | |
Presentation of Awards | |
Brief highlights/ summary of 3rd IWC
Prof Bob McIntosh Emeritus Professor, The University of Sydney, Australia | |
Closing remarks from WA
Ms Cecilia McConnell DDG- Research, Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Western Australia | |
Next steps Prof Peter Langridge Chair, Scientific Board, International Wheat Initiative, Germany | |
Next IWC Prof Roberto Tuberosa IWC 2026 Organiser, Università Di Bologna, Italy | |
Closing remarks for the Congress
Prof Peter Davies Pro Vice Chancellor, Food Futures Institute, Murdoch University, Australia | |
Vote of thanks
Ms Anu Chitikineni Senior Science Manager, Centre for Crop & Food Innovation, Murdoch University, Australia |
Friday 27 September 2024
07.30 – 16.30 | AGT and LongReach Field Trip |
08.00 – 12.00 | CBH Tour |
09.00 – 15.30 | Intergrain Field Trip |