Source: COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to
5TH INTERNATIONAL RICE GENETICS SYMPOSIUM AND 3RD INTERNATIONAL RICE FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS SYMPOSIUM
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
NRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0204677
Grant No.
2005-35604-16246
Project No.
COL0-2005-04910
Proposal No.
2005-04910
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
45.0
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2005
Project End Date
Dec 28, 2006
Grant Year
2005
Project Director
Leach, J. E.
Recipient Organization
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
FORT COLLINS,CO 80523
Performing Department
BIOAGRICULTURAL SCIENCES & PEST MANAGEMENT
Non Technical Summary
Rice is the most important food crop in the world and an important experimental system for research in fundamental plant biology. Recently, the genome sequence of rice was completed, and many essential, publicly available genomic and genetic tools have been developed. Rapid progress is now being made towards understanding the functions of the rice genes in regulatory networks and evolutionary selection controlling such complex traits as yield, biotic and abiotic stresses, reproductive barriers, epigenetics and flowering time. The results of these findings will be presented at the 5th International Rice Genetics Symposium and the 3rd International Rice Functional Genomics Symposium which will be held from November 19-23, 2005 at the Shangri-La Hotel EDSA Plaza, Manila, Philippines. To enable progress made by US scientists to be presented at this meeting, funds are requested for travel and living expenses for three US invited speakers to participate in the meeting. In addition, to promote the next generation of US rice biologists, funds are requested for travel for three graduate students/post doctoral fellows to attend and present their work as posters at this meeting. The students/post docs will be selected by a competition. The meeting will provide an excellent opportunity to learn about the latest developments in structural, functional and evolutionary genomics and genetics research, facilitate international collaborations in rice research, and promote advances in rice research made in the US. Speakers will submit chapters to a book of the proceedings of the meeting.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
2011530104050%
2011530108050%
Knowledge Area
201 - Plant Genome, Genetics, and Genetic Mechanisms;

Subject Of Investigation
1530 - Rice;

Field Of Science
1080 - Genetics; 1040 - Molecular biology;
Goals / Objectives
To provide travel support for US rice research scientists to attend the 5th International Rice Genetics Symposium and the 3rd International Rice Functional Genomics Symposium, November 19-23, 2005, in Manila, Philippines. Funds are requested for at least three invited symposium speakers and three students or postdocs to participate in the conference.
Project Methods
Funds will be used to support three invited speakers from the USA. Those speakers will be selected from a group of 17 invited by the international organizing committee. Criterion for selection of the speakers will emphasize diversity, including women, minorities, and persons with disabilities as well as geographic diversity. Speakers are expected to provide a chapter for publication that is based on their presentation. Three students and postdocs will be selected for travel awards by a competition that will be advertised widely on the web. The selection committee will select awardees based on quality and relevance of science in a submitted abstract, likelihood of career benefit from the meetings, and geographic diversity and membership in an under-represented group.

Progress 09/01/05 to 12/28/06

Outputs
To promote advances in rice research made in the US research community, to provide an opportunity to learn about the latest developments in structural, functional and evolutionary genomics and genetics research, and to facilitate future international collaborations in rice research, funds from the USDA-CSREES were used to supported the travel of two graduate students and two post doctoral fellows to attend the 5th International Rice Genetics Symposium and the 3rd International Rice Functional Genomics Symposium (RG5-IRFG3), November 19-23, 2005. The students, Anjali S. Iyer-Pascuzzi (Cornell University) and Myron Bruce (Colorado State University), and postdocs Kristi Mather (North Carolina State University) and Jeremy Edwards (University of Arizona), were selected for the travel support from a competition based on research abstracts and how the envisioned attendance at the meeting would further their current and future in rice research. Following the meeting, the International Rice Research Institute hosted the student and postdoctoral travel awardees for a day of field and laboratory tours. This was the first opportunity for these young rice biologists to see large-scale methods to screen for biotic or abiotic stresses (such as submergence tolerance, etc) as well as to experience the breadth of phenotypic diversity found in the rice germplasm collection as well as the deletion mutant collection. In addition, the funding was used to support travel expenses for four invited speakers from the USA (R. Wu, X. Deng, R. Dean, J. Leach) that were selected by the international organizing committee. Of these, two were minority and one was a woman. A fifth speaker was selected (R. Buell), but she declined funding so that an extra student/post doc travel could be funded. All speakers provided chapters for publication in the book Rice Genetics V (in press). Remaining USDA-CSREES funds were used to support partial hotel expenses for six other US plenary and concurrent session speakers. The RG5-IRFG3 meeting was the largest gathering in the history of rice genetics/functional genomics research, and was attended by approximately 720 participants from 43 countries. There were 60 US participants, and US-supported research was featured prominently in scientific sessions, with eight (of 26) plenary speakers and nine (of 55) concurrent session speakers being from the US.

Impacts
The RG5-IRFG3 meeting provided an excellent opportunity to feature US research. The students and post docs were able to meet and interact with many excellent rice researchers, and to see rice production and research in Asia. These young scientists were able to observe collaborative research at its best!

Publications

  • Brar, D, editor. 2006. Rice Genetics V. Proceedings of the Fifth International Rice Genetics Symposium and the Third International Rice Functional Genomics Symposium. Manila (Philippines): International Rice Research Institute Press, in press.