The 8^th International Sweetpotato Symposium was successfully held in the Rural Development Administration (RDA) Auditorium, Jeonju, Korea on September 5th-8th, 2018. The event was jointly organized by the Trilateral Research Association of Sweetpotato (TRAS), National Institute of Crop Science and National Institute of Agricultural Sciences of RDA, and Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB). The symposium was held under the theme “promoting high-value added industry of sweetpotato for the fourth industrial innovation”. Participants from CIP, CIP-China, China, Korea, Japan and India representing research communities and industries joined the event. More than 60 attendees from China participate the symposium and Prof. Peng Zhang and Asst. Prof. Hongxia Wang were invited and attended the meeting.

The symposium covered topics including sweetpotato genetics resources, breeding and cultivation, physiology and biotechnology, processing and biochemistry, genomics and biomaterials. Also special sessions of keynote lectures and Young Scientists presentations were also organized to facilitate multiple information exchanges and collaboration. During the symposium, the delegates visited several research institutes and field station of RDA.

Peng gave two talks as session lecture on storage root development and starch biosynthesis of sweetpotato. Hongxia reported the recent progress on further glycosylation of anthocyanins in purple sweetpotato. Her talk with the title of “UDP-glucose:anthocyanidin 3-O-glucoside-2”-O-glucosyltransferase catalyzes further glycosylation of anthocyanins in purple Ipomoea batatas” was awarded the Best Presentation on the symposium.