Dear colleagues and friends, the International Conference on DNA Barcoding and Biodiversity was successfully held in Sofia Bulgaria, May 25-27, 2022! The conference was organized by the Institute of Plant Physiology and Genetics, BAS in the framework of the project BULCode within the National Program “European Scientific Networks” of the Ministry of Education and Science of Bulgaria. This conference is the first and unique of its kind as a topic addressing DNA barcoding biodiversity studies not only for Bulgaria but for Eastern Europe. The conference brought together about 170 people including on-site and online presenters and listeners from 40 countries. We acknowledge all participants including guest lecturers Paul Hebert, Hugo de Boer, Kristy Deiner, Fedor Ciampor Jr., Laura Parducci, Marko Mutanen and Torbjorn Ekrem for sharing their research. A wide range of biodiversity and food-safety studies covering all living taxa were presented through inspiring talks and posters. We are glad that we had the chance to meet face-to-face eminent researchers involved in DNA barcoding studies and we all have enjoyed fruitful discussions, planning of further collaborations activities and a lot of fun during the conference. The event is a great achievement for BULCode project in its goals to promote biodiversity studies in Bulgaria through DNA barcoding and establishing collaboration networks in the field.
Acknowledgments to the members of the Organizing Committee of ICDBB 2022 and the project BULCode for their enormous work to have the event successfully held. We appreciate the support of the organizing partner Congress Management & Events LTD. Special thanks to Pensoft Publishers for their acceptance to be part of the conference and to contribute to the public dissemination of the conference and the presented scientific data!
More information about the conference as well as a photo gallery can be found on the web pages of the conference (https://cmebg.com/en/sabitia/icdbb2022/) and the project BULCode (www.plantbulcode.com) as well as on social platforms Facebook (BULCode project) and Twitter (#ICDBB2022).
Looking forward to future events!
Lectures
BULCode posters
Poster session
Our keynote speakers
Research visit of the Bulgarian team in Finland
April 19-23, 2022
Visiting the Viikki campus of University of Helsinki, Department of Agricultural Sciences
Visiting the University of Turku, Visiting the Natural History Museum of Helsinki and the Botanical garden
BULCode project presented at
Members of the BULCode project took part of the exciting and enriching scientific forum which brought together renown scientists involved in basic and applied research in various domains of plant biology - physiology, biochemistry, genetics. The project leader Dr. Georgi Bonchev gave a talk where he presented the project concept, goals, expected impacts as well as he outlined performed training activities on DNA barcoding and some preliminary results concerning the analysis of native for Bulgaria plant genetic resources. In addition, three posters showing case DNA barcoding studies on model plants and phytopathogenic fungi were also presented.
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Gallery
Summer DNA barcoding training camp – sampling field specimens
(June 10-12, 2021)
The 3-days summer camp brought together participants of the BulCode project from the Institute of Plant Physiology and Genetics (IPPG) and the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research (IBER). The training was provided by the teaching staff from IBER with pronounced expertise in plant biodiversity, taxonomy and ecology. Participants were introduced with the basic procedures for the collection of plant material from natural habitats following standards ensuring the obtaining of further high quality molecular and taxonomic data. The following topics were addressed:
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Theoretical overview of activities preceding the organization of collection trips
- Need of comprehensive overview of available information from literature and herbarium collections to prepare a list of target species and their appropriate areas of collection.
2. Protocols for collection of plant specimens
- Ecology guidelines for sampling endangered, rare or preserved species
- How to obtain and store tissue samples in field conditions ensuring their preservation for subsequent DNA analyses (e.g use of silica gel, specimen collection envelopes etc),
- How to prepare herbarium vouchers
3. Documentation of vouchers as a prerequisite for the upload of DNA barcodes into databases
- photodocumentation of specimens
- labeling of specimens
In the course of the training botanical camp, several collection areas in Eastern Rhodope Mountains (vicinity of towns Haskovo and Kardzhali) were visited and vouchers from endemic plant species from families Centaurea and Verbascum were collected which will be used for DNA barcoding studies.
