Date palm research programme launched

Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) and the Ministry of Environment’s Biotechnology Centre have launched a date palm research programme to establish Qatar as an international leader in the field. It was in 2008 that WCMC-Q’s genomics laboratory mapped the date palm genome for the first time. In 2010, the research team identified the region of the genome that is linked to gender, making it possible to quickly and easily classify male and female seedlings - information that has huge significance for the cultivation and propagation of the palms. The goal of this new international collaborative project is to increase Qatar’s lead in date palm research further, advancing basic, applied and human health research into this national resource and establishing a nucleus for a future Qatar Institute of Date Palm Research. The inaugural meeting of the research programme was held recently via video-conferencing at WCMC-Q with leading scientists in Qatar, France and Germany. The meeting was chaired by Dr Joel Malek, director of genomics at WCMC-Q, Masoud al-Marri, director of the biotechnology centre, and Dr Karsten Suhre, lead principal investigator and WCMC-Q’s director of metabolomics. Dr Malek said that a great team of scientists has been assembled for the project from a broad set of backgrounds. He added: “Integrated research like this has not been conducted on the date palm before and we expect that the results will directly impact this important crop in the future. “The joining of local and international expertise will ensure that project stays focused on the needs of Qatar and the region while bringing the latest technologies to bear on challenges in date palm biotechnology.” Dr Suhre said: “We believe that we already have very original research tools in our hands that allow us to investigate the genetic and biochemical properties of the date palm. What we aim at now is to translate our basic research know-how into real world applications. This can only be achieved in close collaboration with the local stakeholders, represented by the Qatar Biotechnology Centre and representatives of the Ministry of Environment’s Department of Agriculture.” Al-Marri, who pointed out that for hundreds of years the date palm has been a part of daily life in the region, said the continued partnership and co-operation between the biotechnology centre and WCMC-Q demonstrates Qatar’s ambition to be a centre of research excellence for the Middle East. Also present at the meeting by video link were the project’s partners, which included Dr Abdelhafid Bendahmane, research director at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD); Dr Frederique Aberlenc, researcher at the IRD; and Dr Klaus Mayer, researcher at the Helmholtz Centre Munich. Local partners in the project include Dr Ali El Kharboutly, biotechnology consultant at the Biotechnology Centre; Dr Emad Hussain al-Turaihi, expert at the Ministry of Environment’s Department of Agriculture; and Amer Fayed al-Khis, research engineer at the Department of Agriculture. The project has received financial support of $4.5mn from Qatar National Research Fund and will run for a period of five years.