I. Biology and Biotechnology in Ferns
1. Alexandru M.F Tomescu (Humboldt State University, USA).
Title: Seed-free plant vegetative morphology - a developmental perspective.
2. Jan de Vries (Dalhousie University, Canada).
Title: Azolla - a model system for symbiotic nitrogen fixation and evolutionary developmental biology.
3. Helena Fernández, Alejandro Rivera y Ma Jesús Cañal. (Oviedo University, Spain).
Title: The fern gametophyte as a model to study apomixis.
4. Ajij Pratap Singh (Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, India).
Title: Biotechnology in clone gametophytes: future perspectives of homosporous ferns.
5. Tomiczak, K; Domrzalka, L.; Grzyb, M; Jan Rybczynski. (Polish Academy of Sciences, Botanical Garden, Poland).
Title: In vitro morphogenic events in ferns: from spores and protoplasts to plant.
6. Anna Mikula et al. (Botanical Garden, Poland). Title: Experimental and practical applications of fern somatic embryogenesis.
II. Evolution, Conservation and Biodiversity of ferns
7. Emily Sessa. (University of Florida, USA)
Title: Fern Evolution and Classification.
8. Kelly K.S. Matsunaga (University of Michigan, USA).
Title: Exploring the role of auxin in the evolution of tracheophyte body plans.
9. Daniel Ballesteros and Valerie Pence (Royal Botanic Gardens, UK)
Title: Fern conservation: the experience of 25 years of spore, gametophyte and sporophyte ex situ storage, in vitro culture, and cryopreservation"
10. Carrapico, F. (University of Lisboa, Portugal)
Title: Symbiogenesis and the evolution of biological complexity. Azolla as a case study.
III. Ferns as genetic and metabolic resources
11. Chi-Lien Chen
(University of Iowa, USA). Title: Gametophyte and sporophyte transformation.
12. Ashley Cannon and Stanley Roux (University of Texas, USA).
Title: Generation of transgenic Ceratopteris richardii spores to analyze Ca2+ dynamics during gravity-directed polarization. 13. Janos Vetter (Szent Istvan University, Hungary).
Title: Secondary metabolites of ferns.
14. Liliana Cristina Soare and Nikoleta Anca Sutan (University of Pitesti, Romania). Title: Current trends in ferns/pteridophytes extracts: from plant to nanoparticles.
IV. Ferns and Environment
15. Yanshan Chen, Lena Ma and Bala Rathinasabapathi (Nanjing University, China, and University of Florida, USA).
Title: Molecular biology of arsenic hyperaccumulator ferns: Novel genes to understand extraordinary arsenic tolerance, uptake and metabolism and their implications for cro
p improvement strategies 16. Pei-Hsuan Lee, Yao-Moan Huang, and Wen-Liang Chiou. (Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, Taiwan).
Title: Fern phenology
17. Jill Farrant (University of Cape Town, South Africa).
Title: Moria caffrorum as model to study desiccation tolerance.
18. Marina López-Pozo, Beatriz Fernández-Marín, Jose Ignacio García-Plazaola and Daniel Ballesteros. (University of Pais Vasco, Spain)
Title: Desiccation tolerance in ferns: from the unicellular spore to the multi-tissular sporophyte.
19. David Rodríguez de la Cruz (University of Salamanca, Spain).
Title: New insights on atmospheric fern spore dynamics.
20. José Maria Gabriel y Galán (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain).
Title: Ecological role of some hormones on spore germination of temperate forest ferns.
21. José María Gabriel y Galán (Co
About the Author: Helena FernándezProfessor of Plant Physiology at the Department of Organisms and Systems Biology, University of Oviedo, Spain. She has an experience of almost three decades working with ferns, and dealing with basic and applied topics such as morphogenesis, reproduction by sexual or asexual means, and micropropagation. Presently, her interest is focussed on deciphering the molecular mechanisms involved on apogamy under trancriptomic and proteomic approaches.
