Dr. Zenaida V. Magbanua, Assistant Research Professor at Mississippi State University, underscored the value of genomic studies in agriculture and farming during her talk Use of Genomics in the Improvement of Crops for the Agriculture and Development Seminar Series (ADSS) of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) on February 12, 2015. Dr. Magbanua is also a Balik Scientist Awardee of the Department of Science and Technology.

Dr. Magbanua presented that heritable gene sequences of crops are being studied to increase yields, lower chemical inputs, enhance its resistance to biotic and abiotic stress and ultimately help attain food sustainability. She also discussed other current researches in crop improvement such as traditional breeding, marker assisted selection, transgenic technology, and RNAi technology, and the challenges accompanying each. Towards the end of her presentation, Dr. Magbanua raised the idea of genomics being put into public databases that are easily accessible to scientists, breeders, academicians, industry and the general public.

The seminar was co-organized by the Philippine Genome Center-Agriculture Program (PGC-Agriculture) and the University of the Philippines Los Baños-Institute of Plant Breeding.

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