At the invitation of College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology Lanzhou University and State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Professor Iain Searle from the University of Adelaide Australia paid a visit to Lanzhou University on August 3, 2023 and attended the 162^nd session of “Pratacultural Everest Forum”.

In the morning of the 3^rd, Professor Iain Searle delivered an academic report titled “Common vetch genome resequencing reveals the center of diversity, migration patterns and a population bottleneck during the last glacial period” at the Lecture Hall on the 4^th floor of Biye Building. The seminar was chaired by Professor Liu Zhipeng, and attended by about 60 teachers and students. Professor Iain Searle first introduced the origin, evolution and world distribution of Vicia sativa, and focused on sharing his team’s work on the whole genome sequencing of Vicia sativa. The report triggered great interest and heated discussion among the teachers and students present. After the seminar, Professor Iain Searle visited the herbage genetic transformation step-in incubator.

In the afternoon of the 3^rd, Professor Iain Searle had an internal academic exchange meeting with graduate students of the Breeding Institute. Graduate students of Professor Liu Zhipeng and Professor Liu Wenxian’s team introduced their research progress in Vicia sativa split pod and Medicago sativa breeding for stress resistance to Professor Iain Searle. Professor Iain Searle provided instructive advice, and encouraged graduate students to aim high, keep a humble academic attitude and insist on exploration.

In the morning of the 4^th, Professor Iain Searle visited the Yuzhong County Herbage Germplasm Resources Nursery of Lanzhou University. Gao Yunqing, a graduate student of Professor Li Chunjie’s team, introduced Achnatherum inebrians breeding experiment and seed harvest experiment of their experimental site to Professor Iain Searle; Han Bingcheng, a PhD student of Professor Liu Zhipeng’s team, introduced Vicia sativa production experiment, Medicago sativa self-crossing and hybrid experiment of their experimental site to Professor Iain Searle. Professor Iain Searle shared Australian team experience and technology in herbage breeding, and hoped to strengthen inter-university exchanges and partnership in the future.

Speaker profile:

Dr. Iain Searle is currently a Professor of the Department of Biological Sciences and Deputy Director of the Department of Genetics and Evolution at the University of Adelaide Australia, and Director of the Australia-China Joint Research Centre of Grains for Health, mainly specialized in the research of plant epigenetics and genomics, and achieved many global leading results in the fields of Arabidopsis thaliana RNA methylation, non-coding RNA, RNA silencing signal transduction and more. He published 16 papers as the first or corresponding author in world-renowned journals such as Science, Genes and Development, Plant Cell, EMBO Journal and New Phytologist, and his papers have been cited for 4,500+ times. He serves as a Reviewer for Nature, Science, PNAS, Plant Cell and more journals.