Current Advances in Fern Research

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.

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

Title: Gametophyte and sporophyte transformation.

12. Ashley Cannon and Stanley Roux (University of Texas, USA).

13. Janos Vetter (Szent Istvan University, Hungary).

Title: Secondary metabolites of ferns.

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

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 (Complutense University of Ma

Title: Ecomorphology of stomata in temperate ferns under contrasting environments.

22 Myriam Catalá, Marta Esteban, Eugenia López López, Jacinto Elías Sedeño-Díaz, Joseph A. Rodriguez Romero, Luis G. Quintanilla (University Rey Juan Carlos, Spain)

Title: Recent advances in the use of mitochondrial activity of ferns spores in American and European ferns models for the assessment of acute toxicity.

23. Myriam Catalá, Helena García-Cortés, José L. Rodríguez-Gil (University Rey Juan Carlos, Spain)

Title: Update on the assessment of chronic phytotoxicity using fern spore biomarkers.

24. Bhupinder Dhir (University of Delhi, India)

Title: The role of ferns in environmental cleanup.