Keynote Speech

• 

  Ph.D. Fred G. Gmitter Jr.

  UF Research Foundation Professor,
  Citrus GeneticsCitrus Research and Education Center
  University of Florida

  Title: A Trans-Millenia Perspective on the Genetic Improvement of Citrus

  Biography:

  Fred Gmitter is a University of Florida (UF) Research Foundation Professor in Citrus Genetics, working at the UF-Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred, Florida since 1985. He has a B.A in English Literature and an M.S. in Horticultural Sciences from Rutgers University, and a Ph.D. from UF in Horticultural Sciences. Together with Drs. Bill Castle and Jude Grosser, he has released more than thirty citrus scion and rootstock cultivars in the last 15 years, several of which are now being commercialized in Florida and introduced in other countries. His career focus has been on citrus cultivar development, as well as more fundamental genetic and genomic studies to understand the control of economically important traits and improve breeding efficiency. He has published nearly two hundred manuscripts in internationally recognized scientific journals, numerous book chapters, as well as articles in the popular citrus industry press. He was co-editor of The Genus Citrus, a book that comprehensively covers all aspects of citrus from its genomic basis through production and to the consumer. He served as leader of the International Citrus Genome Consortium that produced the first publicly available citrus genome sequence assemblies in 2011. He continues collaboration internationally to expand the catalog of high-quality genome sequences, and to use these to illuminate the processes of evolution, diversification, and domestication in citrus. These resources have been utilized by countless citrus and other plant researchers studying disease resistance, plant physiology, fruit quality, entomology, taxonomy, evolution and phylogeny, and various other scientific disciplines. He has traveled widely to many of the citrus producing regions of the world, with an interest in understanding the many aspects of citrus production and marketing, the breeding and genetics programs underway, and the germplasm resources available to support future genetic advances. Current research projects include developing genome-based tools to enable selection for important traits, consumer-driven breeding, understanding underlying mechanisms of HLB tolerance and sensitivity, and developing HLB-resistant scion and rootstock cultivars using contemporary breeding and genetic strategies.
• 

  Dr. Qiang Xu

  National Key Laboratory for Germplasm Innovation & Utilization of Horticultural Crops from Huazhong Agricultural University, P.R. China

  Title: 5G-driven understanding of citrus origin, domestication and future breeding

  Biography:

  Dr. Qiang Xu is a professor in Horticulture, Director of the National Key Laboratory for Germplasm Innovation & Utilization of Horticultural Crops from Huazhong Agricultural University, P.R. China. He got his Ph.D degree in 2007. His group built up high quality genomes of Citrus germplasm and machine (gear)-based phenotyping platform, identified genes controlling apomixis, fruit color and acidity, and HLB tolerance, revealed genetic basis of citrus origin and domestication, and developed molecular breeding platform for fast de novo domestication of wild citrus.
• 

  Prof. Nian Wang

  Citrus Research and Education Center, Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Lake Alfred, FL, United States.

  Title: Citrus Huanglongbing is a pathogen-triggered immune disease and progress in developing transgene-free disease resistant/tolerant citrus

  Biography:

  Dr. Nian Wang is the J. R. (Rip) Graves Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science at the Citrus Research and Education Center, University of Florida. He is an elected fellow of American Phytopathological Society (APS, 2023), elected fellow of AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2022), and a recipient of Highly Cited Researcher by Web of Science (2023, 2022), Invention of the Year (2022, UF), Ruth Allen Award (2020, APS), UF Term Professorship award (2018), UF Research Foundation Professorship award (2016), and Hewitt Award (2010, APS). He received his Ph.D. degree under the guidance of Dr. Dennis Gross at Texas A&M University, conducted postdoctoral research under the supervision of Dr. Steven E. Lindow at UC, Berkeley. His research interests include molecular genetics and genomics of citrus HLB and canker diseases and their management. He has served as the chair of 18 Ph.D. graduate supervisory committees. He has published more than 130 refereed papers. He has served as Chair of the Bacteriology Committee of APS, and Chair of Pierce's Disease Research Scientific Advisory Panel. He has served as the Editor-in-Chief of Phytopathology.