Dear Colleagues and Friends,
it was our privilege to host you during the 11th International Triticale Symposium, organized by the Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute - National Research Institute in collaboration with the European Association for Research on Plant Breeding and the International Triticale Association.
We would like to thank you very much for your participation in Warsaw and in the online format. Thank you for the excellent and very interesting presentations and posters. Many new trends and problems were underlined in your research.
We would like to emphasize that the meeting was very important.
Firstly, Ludwik Pasteur said: 'Science knows no country because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world'. Indeed, following this, we would like to emphasize that even in a difficult post-pandemic and geopolitical situation, our meeting brought together academics, breeders, and company delegates from many countries. Polish participants accounted for almost half of the delegates, however, distinguished presenters represented 13 countries (Germany, Belgium, USA, Italy, China, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Turkey, Iran, Republic of Korea, Poland), and the number of countries increased up to 21 countries from four continents, when we included listeners participating onsite and online (additionally: Netherlands, France, Chile, Brasil, Serbia, Canada, Danmark, Schweiz).
Secondly, the presentations of our distinguished guests covered a very important range of topics. In the plenary session, we heard cross-cutting issues ranging from genetic resources, through breeding, to practical issues in the context of field crops. The first regular session gave us an overview of the genetics of important traits allowing plants to cope with biotic and abiotic stresses; and modern ways of presenting these traits in databases. The second session combined different tools for phenotypic characterization of plant acclimation to abiotic stress, while the next underlined importance of biotic stress issues in changing climate. Session 4 focused on traits giving output in the yield. Science met breeding, lab met field issues, within the fifth session, while the sixth section presented, how to use genetic resources in practice for more suitable agronomy. Last but not least, tips on how triticale is useful in many end applications was presented in session seventh. Additionally, a lot of information was on the posters, prepared with great passion by the authors.
However, the most important for us was to give you the opportunity to warm hugs with old and new friends and many active discussions.
Bringing in mind the responsibility that the organization of this meeting imposed on us, we would like to thank all the presenters and listeners for their participation, for the nice and supportive correspondence and phone calls during the organisational phase, Prof. Andreas Börner, Prof. Geert Haesaert, Prof. Edward Arseniuk,' for their commitment, and to all employees of IHAR-PIB for their entire contribution, help, and patience.
We hope we see soon at the next meetings.
Sincerely yours.
Organising Committee