3-8pm Check-in & Registration: Little Rock Marriott Lobby/Reception Area

7am-12pm Check-in & Registration

7:30-8:30am Breakfast

8:30-9:15am Welcome/Opening Remarks (Chaired by Trent Roberts)

Deacue Fields 

Nora Lapitan  

Jack Okamuro 

Rod Wing 

9:15-9:50am Keynote Address #1 (Chaired by Sathish Kumar Ponniah) 

10-10:35am Keynote Address #2 (Chaired by Rod A. Wing) 

10:45-11:15am Break + Coffee/Tea/Snacks (30 minutes)

11:15-12:45pm Plenary Session #1 (Chaired by Jan Leach & Yulin Jia)

12:45-2pm Group Photo/Lunch 

2-4:30pm Concurrent Sessions 

Yield – Chaired by Christian De-Guzman & Endang Septiningsih 

Biotic Stress – Chaired by Chih-Wei Tung & Yinong Yang

Rice Quality – Chaired by Shannon Pinson & Siwaret Arikit 

4:30-6:30pm Poster Session/Reception

6:30-8:30pm Dinner on your own 

8:30-10:30pm Workshops  

1. Phenotypic Predictions (Chaired by Samuel Fernandes & Andy Pereira)

8:30-8:40pm Opening remarks: Samuel Fernandes

8:40-9:05pm Sunilkumar Biradar: Hybrid rice and genomic prediction: innovating for a future of food security - 5 min for questions

9:10-9:35pm Gota Morota: Quantitative genetic analysis of metabolite accumulation in rice - 5 min for questions

9:40-10:05pm Parthiban Prakash: Implementing predictive breeding to improve yield under rainfed drought environments in rice : A new hope - 5 min for questions

10:10-10:30pm General Discussion 

2. Bioinformatics (Chaired by Yong Zhou & Jianwei Zhang) 

8:30-8:40pm Opening remarks: Rod A. Wing

8:40-8:50pm Jianwei Zhang: Rice genomes to riceome: an international bioinformatics initiative serving the global rice research community - 5 min for questions

8:55-9:05pm Andy Jones: PanOryza – defining high-quality gene models in rice pan-genome using new data types - 5 min for questions

9:10-9:20pm Nagarajan Kathiresan: Accelerating insights into plant genomics: the vital role of bioinformatics in high performance computing - 5 min for questions

9:25-9:35pm Xuehong Wei: Catalyzing genomic discoveries: leveraging rsIDs for enhanced trait-driven interoperability and genomic function transfer - 5 min for questions

9:40-9:50pmYong Zhou: Rice pan-genome studies: how can bioinformatics analysis be applied in field research? - 5 min for questions

9:55-10:05pm Kenneth McNally: RicePilaf: a dashboard for post-GWAS analysis (currently in press in GigaScience) - 5 min for questions

10:10-10:20pm Sushma Naithani: Plant Reactome: in silico modeling of reference rice pathways for knowledge discovery and translational research - 5 min for questions

10:25-10:30pm General Discussion 

7:30-8:30am Breakfast

8:30-12:30am Plenary Session #2 (Chaired by Georgia Eizenga & Sushma Naithani)

10:30-11am Break + Coffee/Tea (30 minutes) 

Plenary Session #2 Cont. (Chaired by Georgia Eizenga & Sushma Naithani)

12:30-2pm Lunch

2-4:30pm Concurrent Sessions 

Abiotic Stress – Chaired by Benildo de los Reyes & Laura Bartley

Sustainability –  Chaired by Alice Fornasiero & Jai Rohila 

4:25-4:30pm General Discussion 

Comparative Genomics & Technology – Chaired by Jeremy Edwards & Pao-Yang Chen 

4:30-6:30pm Poster Session/Reception

6:30-8:30pm Dinner on your own 

8:30-10:30pm Workshops

1.  Gene Editing – (Chaired by Bing Yang) 

   8:30 - 9:15pm Bing Yang: CRISPR-based genome editing in plants: principal and methodology - 5 min for questions

   9:20 - 9:45 Nelson Saibo: CRISPR: A useful tool to characterize the function of different genes in rice and beyond - 5 min for questions

   9:50 - 10:15pm Flavia Botelho: Targeted mutagenesis of the V-PPase gene reduces grain chalkiness in rice - 5 min for questions

   10:15-10:30pm General Discussion 

2.  High Throughput Phenotyping – (Chaired by Argelia Lorence & Harkamal Walia)

   8:30 - 9:05pm Harkamal Walia: Rice panicle phenotyping - 5 min for questions

   9:10-9:45pm Alexander Bucksch: Root phenotyping - 5 min for questions

   9:50-10:25 Argelia Lorence: Rice field phenotyping - 5 min for questions

   10:25-10:30pm General Discussion 

7:30-8:30am Breakfast

8:30am Meet in the Marriott Hotel lobby

9:10am Isbell Farm Tour – Lonoke http://isbellfarms.com/

11:10am arrival to Stuttgart, AR

11:10-12:10pm PCCUA

12:10-2pm Stuttgart Lunch- Arkansas Style, Phillips Community College, https://www.pccua.edu, Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas (PCCUA)

Young Scientist Award Talks (Chaired by Alton Johnson) 

Opening Remarks: Pankaj Jaiswal

12:30-12:40pm Anil Kumar Nalini Chandran: Phenotypic and transcriptomic response of diverse rice accessions to transient heat stress during early grain development

12:40-12:50pm Alice Fornasiero: Oryza genome evolution through a tetraploid lens

12:50-1pm Alexander Borowsky: Heterogeneity in rice cell type responses to water deficit across the root system

1-1:10pm Fei-Man Hsu: Genome-wide DNA methylation perturbations in rice regeneration

1:10-1:20pm Daniele Chirivi: New details on OsFTL1 florigenic protein revealed by Proximity Labelling in rice

1:20-1:30pm Syed Adeel Zafar: Deciphering gene regulatory networks controlling root xylem plasticity under drought

1:30-1:40pm Maria Florencia Ercoli: Engineering rice root system architecture and exudate composition to optimize rhizosphere interactions

1:40-1:50pm Shohei Oguro: Genome-wide identification of genotype-specific RNA splicing for salt stress response in rice

2:30-5pm  Tour of Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center

2:30-3:00pm  Check-in 
3:00-3:30pm  Introduction and rice tasting – Yulin Jia 
3:30-4:40pm Tour of DBNRRC which includes 10 min rotations with center personnel explaining the following research activities:
Rice grain quality - Shannon Pinson
Abiotic stress tolerance - Jai Rohila
Plant Pathology - Yulin Jia
Diverse rice species - Georgia Eizenga
Genomics core facility - Jeremy Edwards
US rice germplasm collection - Trevis Huggins
Seed processing activities - Laduska Sells

5-6pm Tour of University of Arkansas Rice Research and Extension Center/ Field plot experiment for breeding and crop protection

5:00-5:20pm Observation Plots University of Arkansas
5:20-5:40pm Climate Change/ Germplasm USDA - Dale Bumpers NRRC
5:40-6:00pm Rice/Fish Experiment DB NRRC and SNARC

6:30-8:30pm Banquet Dinner + Speaker Award Ceremony (Chaired by Yulin Jia & Rod A. Wing)

Chris Isbell: Dreams of a rice farmer in Arkansas, USA

Hallie Shoffner: Scalable production of rice varietals and the economic future for rice farmers 

Announcement of ISRFG2025 and Concluding Remarks