The Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) is hosting an international symposium on insect genetics and genomics at Hyderabad between January 9-11, 2006. The symposium is expected to provide an opportunity to researchers, teachers and students to acquaint with the recent research in the relevant.

Sources pointed out that study of insects have provided fundamentals of genetics in the past, and the recent advancements in genomics have put them again in the limelight of functional genomics. Availability of whole genome sequences, expressed sequence tags, genetic linkage maps and insect transgenesis; and deciphering the mechanisms and pathways of genetic sexing, sex determination, immune response and small RNA mediated regulation are some of the frontier research areas in insect genetics and genomics, which have opened up new vistas in fundamental research and their potential applications.

The speakers include Luke Alphey, Oxford University, UK; Pierre Couble, University of Lyon, France; Rene Feyereisen, INRA Centre de Recherches d Antibes, France; R. Gadagkar, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; Marian Goldsmith, University of Rhode Island, USA; KP Gopinathan, Indian Institute of Science; SE Hasnain, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad; David Heckel, Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany; S Katsuma, University of Tokyo, Japan; SC Lakhotia, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi; Frantisek Marec, Institute of Entomology, Czech Republic.

Other speakers include Rakesh Mishra, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad; J Nagaraju, CDFD; Teruyuki Niimi, Nagoya University, Japan; SR Palli, University of Kentucky, USA; HA Ranganath, University of Mysore, Mysore; Steven M Reppert, University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA; G Saccone, University of Naples, Italy; Ken Sahara, Hokkaido University, Japan; C Schloetterer, University of Veterinery Medicine, Austria; L S Shashidhara, CCMB; Toru Shimada, University of Tokyo, Japan; Ernst Wimmer, University of Bayreuth, Germany; Toshiki Tamura and Kazuei Mita from National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Japan.