We became pioneers in Central Asia and in Kazakhstan by launching a «SPEED BREEDING» platform for accelerated selection of agricultural crops, which allows for up to 6 generations per year. Our laboratory played a key role in developing specialized protocols that significantly increase the speed of selection processes and research. These protocols accelerate the creation of improved crop varieties, ensuring faster development of high-yielding and resilient crops. We successfully harvested the first crop on this platform, marking an important milestone in the implementation of our project.

Workpackage for the accelerated breeding of  wheat and barley varieties within BR24992903 “Practical implementation of modern molecular-genetic, physiological-biochemical, biotechnological methods, and digital phenotyping in the breeding of economically significant agricultural crops” for 2024-2026 under budget program 217 “Science Development,” subprogram 101 “Program-targeted funding of scientific and/or scientific-technical activity entities.”

Title: The development of new genetic resources for Kazakh bread wheat improvement
Goal: The aim of this grant proposal is to use such a genetic strategy to develop four bi-parental wheat populations, through crossing the Kazakh and UK commercial wheat varieties, and constructing their high-density genetic maps.

The International Conference ICPBB 2024 was timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the founding of the “Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology”.

More than 200 scientists from 15 countries participated in the conference. During the conference two thematic workshops were organized: 

1. Biodiversity of wild flora of Central Asia.

2. OXFORD NANOPORE SEQUENCING: New Opportunities for Plant Genomics and Phytopathology (jointly with TechPrime LLP (Kazakhstan)).

Dr. Kanat Yermekbayev, Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Genomics and junior researcher Adeliya Khamitova, as well as leading domestic and foreign scientists in the fields of genetics, genomics, breeding, physiology, biochemistry, and plant biotechnology, made plenary and oral presentations at the conference. Dr. Kanat Yermekbayev presented on "Breaking the founder effect controlling plant height in the Kazakh wheat gene pool"  within the framework of the project AP23488859 "Adding Value to the Central Asian Wheat through the Means of Whole Genome Scanning, Automated Phenotyping, and Intensive Selection." Junior researcher Adeliya Khamitova presented on "Four mapping populations and their genetic maps provided insights into the genetics of adaptation for Kazakhstani wheat germplasm" within the framework of the project  AP15473186 “The development of new genetic resources for Kazakh bread wheat improvement”. Opportunities for the development of breeding and genetic research using new genomic and phenomic technologies were discussed.

Young scientists of the laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Genomics, who participated in this forum, gained invaluable experience through listening to lectures of leaders of modern science, in the presentation of the results of their own work, in the discussion of pressing problems of plant biotechnology. PhD student of the 2nd year Sartbaeva Zhuldyz took the second place, as well as junior researcher Abduakassov Aibek took the third place for poster presentations among young scientists from more than 15 countries of the world.

Zhetysu University named after I. Zhansugurov in Taldykorgan (Kazakhstan), in collaboration with the Islamic Organization for Food Security (IOFS), held the "2nd Central Asian Wheat Genetics and Genomics Workshop" on June 24-25, 2024, aimed at breeders and geneticists.

The Research Institute of Biotechnology and Ecology, consisting of four laboratories, including the «Molecular Genetics and Genomics» Laboratory, provided its platform for the seminar. The goal of the seminar was to develop resilient and high-quality wheat varieties to enhance food security and promote sustainable agriculture in Central Asia.

The seminar topics included pre-breeding for resilient crops, wheat variety improvement, hybrid wheat, speed breeding, molecular breeding, and KASP genotyping. Participants representing seven Kazakhstani research institutes and universities engaged with international experts from Pakistan and Turkey, including the director of IOFS, renowned wheat breeders.