Saving plants Time: 10:30-11:00 a.m., July 26 Location: Hall 4, 1F, Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center A significant proportion of plant species are now threatened with extinction, and plant biodiversity is being lost in other ways, so that even species that were once common are becoming rare. Stephen Blackmore Stephen Blackmore is a Queens Botanist and Honorary Fellow, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. He’s a pioneer in promoting global biodiversity. He was once in charge of the botanical management in the Natural History Museum of London. Plant growth in a high CO2 world Time: 10:30-11:00 a.m., July 26 Location: Hall 5, 1F, Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center Prof. Christian Körner will present a theory and evidence that questions a simple rationale. It is a trivial fact that carbon can only become incorporated into new biomass to the extent soil nutrients permit. Christian Körner Christian Körner is a full professor at the Institute of Botany, University of Basel, Switzerland. He is a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Vienna), German Academy of Sciences and National Academy of India (Foreign Fellow) and has received numerous scientific awards, including the Marsh Award. International developments and responsibilities for the botanical community in plant conservation Time: 11:00-11:30 a.m., July 26 Location: Hall 4, 1F, Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center The development of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) through the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity can trace its origins back to a resolution of the International Botanical Congress held in St. Louis, Missouri in 1999 and its 2002 adoption by the international community. Peter Wyse Jackson Peter Wyse Jackson is the president of the Missouri Botanical Garden and George Engelmann Professor of Botany at Washington University in St. Louis. He obtained a B.A. (Mod.) and an M.A. in botany from Trinity College, Dublin, where he subsequently obtained a Ph.D. for work on the taxonomy of Irish Cruciferae. Fitter with litter: plant traits and their legacy for ecosystem services Time: 11:00-11:30 a.m., July 26 Location: Hall 5, 1F, Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center Hans Cornelissen will speak about a new conceptual model that will help us to investigate these differences based on species traits, by two highly distinct and possibly interacting plant “trait spectra”: the Plant Economics Spectrum (PES), and the Size and Shape Spectrum (SSS). Different ecosystem services provided by plant litter are driven by either one of the trait spectra or by both. J. Hans C. Cornelissen J. Hans C. Cornelissen is a professor of system ecology at Vrije University Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Phytochrome photosensory signaling and transcriptional networks Time: 11:00-11:30 a.m., July 26 Location: Bougainvillea Hall, 5F, Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center Peter Quail’s group researches the molecular mechanisms by which light regulates gene expression in plants, focusing on the phytochrome family of photoreceptors. Peter Quail Peter Quail is a professor at the University of California-Berkeley. He is the research director of the Plant Gene Expression Center at University of California Berkeley and a professor at the Department of Molecular Plant Biology. Developing integrative systematics in the informatics and genomic era Time: 11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., July 26 Location: Hall 4, 1F, Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center Systematics is the science of discovering, organizing and interpreting the diversity of all living organisms on Earth. Jun Wen Dr. Jun Wen is a Ph.D. at Research Botanist & Curator of the Smithsonian Institution. She is an evolutionary biologist studying the systematics and biogeography of plants. Long-term field experiments in combination with observational data in China’s Inner Mongolia grasslands successfully addressed many fundamental questions in ecology Time: 11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., July 26 Location: Hall 5, 1F, Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center In the summer of 2012, Dr. Xing-Guo Han and his colleagues conducted a large-scale field sampling across a 15,000-km spatial transect from Bayanbulak in Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China to the forest region of the Greater Hinggan in Inner Mongolia. Xing-Guo Han Dr. Xing-Guo Han heads the Institute of Botany and Shenyang Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Sequence assembly, evolution and functional application of the cotton genomes Time: 11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., July 26 Location: Bougainvillea Hall, 5F, Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center We used the highly homozygous G. hirsutum (AtDt, 2n = 52) genetic standard line TM-1 for DNA sequencing. We crossed a tetraploid G. barbadense cv. 3-79 with TM-1 to obtain 167 RIL individuals to construct a high-density genetic map. Yu-Xian Zhu Yu-Xian Zhu, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and also a member for The World Academy of Sciences for developing countries. | 