Genetic Analysis for Conservation and Sustainability of Tropical Natural Resources
Tropical biodiversity is the world’s most valuable asset. It provides food, clothing, and shelter for most of the world’s population. "Unfortunately, the tropical genetic resources are underutilized and endangered due to the destruction of natural habitats. So far we have given a lack of appreciation to this valuable natural resource. To restore it requires high costs of conservation programs," said Vice-Rector for Research and Cooperation, Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), Dr. Ir. Anas Miftah Fauzi in the Regional Technical Seminar-Workshop entitled ‘Advances in Tropical Genomics: Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Biodiversity ‘, Tuesday (20/12) in Bogor.
Dr. Anas hopes this activity can be a forum of information exchange and knowledge sharing among the participants, and various aspects are also discussed of recent genomic studies conducted both in the region and developed in each country. “This workshop, I hope, can improve research collaboration among fellow researchers," said Dr. Anas. He also said that currently IPB is developing a roadmap of research in the field of energy, food, and environment. In addition, he expects IPB to participate more actively to help address the national issues and those of world communities.
Prof. Dr.Wickneswari Ratnam from University Kebangsaan Malaysia in his keynote speech said that people begin to realize the importance of assessing the wealth of tropical genetic resources for conservation and sustainable use in the future. "The assessment of genetic resources as a component of biodiversity, which was previously carried out using molecular markers, have some limitations because these markers can not access the entire genomes of organisms," said Prof. Wickneswari. The rapid progress in genomics has attracted much attention as a new and more powerful tool for assessing genetic research and resources, also to break the old barriers to traditional breeding programs.
Prof. Wickneswari exemplifies a related study of some trees, namely, Dryobalanops aromatica (lime), Shorea curtisii (Meranti seraya) and acacia. He also talked about the equipment and facilities owned by his laboratory in Malaysia such as sequencing, genome computing center, proteonics, protein expression and purification.
Director of the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Tropical Biology (SEAMEO BIOTROP), Dr. Bambang Purwantara said that this event, which was attended by around 150 participants from Japan, Germany, Australia, Malaysia, is expected to form a Southeast Asia consortium of tropical genome. "On the second day an exchange of information was made especially in the learning process on the latest methodologies and protocols of genomics research," said Dr. Bambang. (Mtd)
