The United Arab Emirates University organizes a lecture on “Genetics and Genomics of Date Palms" in cooperation with the IRD

The Date Palm Development Research Unit in the Research and Graduate Studies Department of the United Arab Emirates University, in collaboration with the Institute for Research and Development (IRD) from France, organized a lecture entitled “An Overview of Research on the Genetics and Genomics of Date Palms”, on Sunday, February 28^th, 2016 in the Business Center in the Crescent Building. It highlighted the latest laboratory techniques for testing the origins of date palms. Professor Ghaleb Ali Al Hadrami, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies, a number of specialists from the colleges of science and food and agriculture, scientists from the Khalifa Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, faculty and students were all in attendance.

Dr. Frederica Aberlink, a senior researcher in the biotechnology of date palms at IRD, explained that the main objective of researching palms. This is to identify the origins of palm trees by identifying the species growing wild in known palm-growing areas. She said that, “test techniques that determine the gender of the seedling emerging from the palm have been developed using genetics. Also the impact of climate change on the cultivation of palm trees has been known to negatively affect the quality of dates.”

Dr. Aberlink explained the impact of climate change on the cultivation of palm trees through studying the genes responsible for early and late flowering. This contributes to their adaptation to local environmental conditions and can improve productivity.

Finally, she answered questions from the audience related to genetics and genomics and  new technology.