15 SEED TESTING INTERNATIONAL APRIL 2026 ASSOCIATION NEWS ISTA Participation in Zemun Polje Conference – Belgrade 2025 Violeta Andjelkovic1 and Florina Palada2 1Director of Research and Development, Maize Research Institute Zemun Polje; violeta@mrizp.rs 2Head of Accreditation and Technical Department, ISTA Secretariat, Wallisellen, Switzerland; florina.palada@ista.ch IN 2025, THE MAIZE RESEARCH INSTITUTE ZEMUN POLJE MARKED THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF ITS ESTABLISHMENT. On this occasion, the Institute organised an international scientific conference, ‘Crop Science and Technology: Shaping the Future of Agriculture’, held from 29 September to 1 October 2025, at Falkensteiner Hotel in Belgrade, Serbia. The event brought together leading experts, researchers and partners from both Serbia and abroad, providing an excellent platform for the exchange of knowledge and ideas. For over eight decades, the Maize Research Institute Zemun Polje has served as a pillar of scientific and professional excellence in plant breeding, genetics and the production of maize, soybeans and small grain cereals. Since its establishment in 1945, the Institute has evolved into an internationally recognised centre, with more than 1000 hybrids of maize and varieties of soybean and small grain cereals cultivated worldwide. The conference brought together more than 140 experts working in the same field of interest. The participants were eminent researchers and professors from both Serbia and abroad, as well as young researchers, PhD students, producers linked to the seed sector and breeders from the main companies in the seed sector. There were also representatives from the ISTA accredited laboratory RS03. During the conference, presentations were given under seven sections by speakers from numerous national and international organisations. The key presentations covered topics with high interest for the participants: Section 1 • Historical overview of maize breeding at Maize Research Institute Zemun Polje • Maize genetic resources: value for research, breeding and society • Is phenomics a good investment for crop improvement? A Texas maize breeder’s perspective • Rapid population improvement using fertile and vigorous haploids in maize Section 2 • Agronomic and genetic approaches, including CRISPR, for producing low asparagine wheat in the context of evolving regulations on genome edited crops and acrylamide in food • Separating genetic and environmental impacts on the maize microbiome • High-throughput plant phenotyping in the era of LLMs: what to expect in the coming years Section 3 • A novel tool for longitudinal phenotyping in maize: towards the ‘clinical trials’ in agriculture • Integrating high-throughput field phenotyping into maize breeding: PHENO_MaizE project achievements and preliminary results • Molecular strategies for thermotolerant pollen: a translational perspective • SNP analysis for maize breeding progress in Ukraine • The effect of low temperatures on the maize transcriptome during the emergence stage Section 4 • Mitigation of mycotoxin contamination along the cereal food chains: advanced strategies in the current climate crisis • Herbicide tolerant maize and soybeans in USA: 25 years later Tanja Petrovic (Head of the ISTA accredited laboratory RS03), Dragana Brankovic-Radojcic and Marija Milivojevic, with Florina Palada from ISTA Jelena Levic, former lead of the Phytopathology Group of Zemun Polje Institute, with Florina Palada, ISTA
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