Methods in Biotechnology

Section 1 Molecular taxonomy.
- Applications of molecular taxonomy from agri-food security to biodiversity and biomonitoring;
- Principles and methods of molecular taxonomy;
- DNA extraction from agri-food and other environmental matrices;
- DNA barcoding and metabarcoding: from single organism to communities;
- NGS sequences platform used in metabarcoding;
- Single marker vs multiple markers, PCR-free gene capture approaches;
- Reference databases and ad-hoc built databases;
- Workshops will be conducted on experimental design, primer selection and library preparation,
basic skills on bash environments, analyses of NGS data and taxonomy assignment

Section 2- Genomics.
- Techniques and approaches in genome, exome and epigenome sequencing;
- Strategies for plant genome analysis and assembly;
- Plant genome structure, synteny and evolution;
- Applications of genomics in plant breeding;
- Workshops will be conducted on sequence analysis and alignments; design of experiments in plant genomics;

Section 3 Functional genomics.
- Techniques and approaches in RNA analysis and modulation;
- Strategies for genome modification;
- Integration of high throughput /content techniques (omics) and data analysis;
- Workshops will be conducted on gene targeting; RNA expression analysis and integrated omics to modulate biological functions.