On December 13^th, 2012, the National Academic Seminar on the Cotton Disease of verticillium wilt, organized by the Cotton Diseases Research Group at the Agro-Products Quality and Bio-Safety Division of the Institute, opened in Beijing. Director General Dr. Dai Xiaofeng attended this seminar and participants included over 20 experts and scholars in the studies of verticillium wilt from dozens of research institutes and institutions of higher learning around the country.

 

    Dr. Dai Xiaofeng pointed out that cotton is an important cash crop and one of the key materials for people’s livelihood. Maintaining sound and stable cotton production activities is of great significance to guarantee clothing supplies for people in China, promote development of the cotton industry, textiles industry and clothing industry and increase the income of farmers in the main cotton plantation area. In 1980s, the wilt disease for cotton was solved in China and after that, verticillium wilt has gradually become the most common disease for cotton production in China and the main obstacle for stable and high production of cotton. The pathogenic bacteria of verticillium wilt is transmitted with seeds, broken branches and soil, and the sclerotium can exist in the soil for many years. Chemical treatment, plantation and cultivation, and traditional disease resistance varieties and other ordinary prevention and control measures are all ineffective to this disease and thus it is known as the cancer for cotton in the community of plant pathology and has become a long-standing problem yet to be solved. Therefore, this symposium aims to enhance academic exchange in this prevention and control of verticillium wilt, identify the main problems in the studies on the transmission and prevalence of this disease at home and abroad, adjust the directions and objectives of the research activities, build an expert team and jointly move ahead with the fundamental and application research activities on the transmission and prevalence of this disease, fundamentals of genetics for group evolution and pathogenic differentiation, pathogenesis and disease resistance mechanism, cotton molecular disease resistance and seed cultivation, etc.

 

    This seminar invited 12 experts and scholars to provide special-topic presentations on the academic research issues and frontier technologies, covering the verticillium wilt group genomics, genetic diversity, genetic breeding for cotton resistant to verticillium wilt, gene cloning and functional research for resistance to verticillium wilt, technologies of comprehensive prevention and control for verticillium wilt, etc.