Last month, during two weeks, Dr Svetlana Glogovac from IFVCNS was on Short-Term Scientific Mission at the University of Rostock (UROS) as part of CROPINNO project activities. During her training, she learned about phenotyping for drought tolerance. Purpose of the training was to improve excellence and scientific capacity of IFVCNS research staff in the field of phenotyping and multi-omics technologies for the purpose of creation and development of climate-resilient crops.

The main goal of Dr Glogovac mission was to develop a protocol for in vitro screening of sunflower genotypes for drought tolerance using polyethylene glycol. At the beginning of her visit, she was introduced with the dynamics of work within the plant genetic laboratory at the Institute of Biological Sciences. Training started with the preparation of liquid media, seeds sterilization, and cultivation of plants in controlled environment. After that, root and shoot traits of the plants grown in control and drought stress conditions were evaluated. Subsequently, she learned about RNA extraction that is used to detect differentially expressed genes with RNAseq.

The protocol was successfully established and by the end of her visit Dr Glogovac was trained on its use for future climate-resilient crop research.

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