18TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ARABIDOPSIS RESEARCH

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: NRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 0210432
• Grant No.: 2007-35301-18066
• Proposal No.: 2007-01695
• Project Start Date: Jun 1, 2007
• Project End Date: May 31, 2008
• Grant Year: 2007
• Program Code: [56.0A]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE
(N/A)
RIVERSIDE,CA 92521

Performing Department
BOTANY AND PLANT SCIENCES

Non Technical Summary
The annual International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR) has proven to be an effective venue to create synergism to advance Arabidopsis research as well as plant research in general. In 2007, the 18th ICAR will be held June 20-23 in Beijing, China. The high travel cost for attending the meeting may prevent researchers, especially early career researchers, from the US to participate at the meeting. We wish to use the funding to defray the cost of travel for early career investigators from the US.

Animal Health Component

20%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

80%

Applied

20%

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
201	2499	1050	20%
201	2499	1080	20%
206	2499	1030	20%
206	2499	1060	20%
212	2499	1040	20%

Knowledge Area
212 - Pathogens and Nematodes Affecting Plants; 206 - Basic Plant Biology; 201 - Plant Genome, Genetics, and Genetic Mechanisms;

Subject Of Investigation
2499 - Plant research, general;

Field Of Science
1040 - Molecular biology; 1060 - Biology (whole systems); 1030 - Cellular biology; 1080 - Genetics; 1050 - Developmental biology;

Keywords

arabidopsis

conference

young investigator

travel awards;

Goals / Objectives
The annual International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR) has proven to be an effective venue to create synergism to advance Arabidopsis research as well as plant research in general. The ICAR is traditionally held every third year in a foreign country outside of North America. In 2007, the 18th ICAR will be held June 20-23 in Beijing, China, marking the first time the ICAR is held in an Asian country. Much of the financial support for the meeting will be provided by Chinese institutions and funding agencies. The North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee is seeking support from UDSA to increase participation at the meeting by scientists from the US, especially students, postdoctoral fellows, and new principal investigators. Our ability to improve the performance of plants of economic value relies largely on our understanding of the basic mechanisms governing plant processes and on the development of new biotechnologies. Arabidopsis research has been crucial in uncovering conserved mechanisms underlying plant developmental processes and plants responses to environmental stresses. Key factors of potential agronomical value have been identified in Arabidopsis and, through homology, in crop species. Arabidopsis research has been instrumental in the development of concepts and biotechnology to manipulate gene expression in plants. The impacts of Arabidopsis research on our ability to improve the economic value of crops cannot be overestimated. Supporting young scientists from the US to participate at the 18th ICAR is a small but important investment in the future of plant biology and agriculture in the US.

Project Methods
The funding will be used to provide travel awards to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and new principal investigators. The awards, made at $1000 for each awardee, are meant to defray the travel costs to attend the meeting. A conference website has been set up (http://www.arabidopsis2007.com/) and is also readily accessible through The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) site (http://www.arabidopsis.org/). The complete program will be posted on TAIR and meeting announcements will appear in the newsletter of the American Society of Plant Biologists and the Plant Molecular Biology Reporter as well as on the Arabidopsis bulletin board. The application procedure for travel awards has been posted on the website. The applications for travel awards will be reviewed by members of the North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee (NAASC) and awardees will be notified prior to the registration deadline for the meeting. The awardees will be reimbursed at a maximum of $1000 for each person after the meeting.

Progress 06/01/07 to 05/31/08

Outputs
OUTPUTS: The USDA grant funded ten travel grants for North American scientists to attend the 18th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research held in June 2007 in Beijing, China. These funds were disbursed by the NAASC (North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee). Below is a list of the travel grant recipients. Fang Bao, NC State Univ.- Raleigh Fred Beisson, Michigan State University- East Lansing Baoqing Cao, University of Nebraska- Lincoln Daeshik Cho, University of Maryland - College Park Chanman Ha, USDA/UC Berkeley PGEC Yijian He, University of Missouri - Columbia Li Quan, Pennsylvania State University - University Park Liang Song, Pennsylvania State University - University Park Shuang Wu, University of Massachusetts - Amherst Songqing Ye, University of Minnesota - St. Paul PARTICIPANTS: Not relevant to this project. TARGET AUDIENCES: Not relevant to this project. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.

Impacts
Findings: A total of 1,423 Arabidopsis researchers from 39 countries attended the conference with approximately 12% of the participants coming from the United States. In comparison, participants from the US made up nearly 50% of all invited speakers. Approximately half of the conference attendees came from China. The conference included 6 plenary scientific sessions on topics including Developmental Mechanisms, Genomics and Genetics, Plant Responses to the Environment, Epigenetics and Plant Defense, Signal Transduction/Cell Biology, and Metabolism/Bioenergy. There were also 12 concurrent scientific sessions on topics including Developmental Mechanisms, Genomics and Genetics, Responses to the Environment, Responses to Microbes, Signal Transduction, Cell Biology and Metabolism/Hormonal Responses. Presentations of current research were made by 53 invited speakers and 24 additional speakers selected from abstracts. Twelve of the presentations partially or completely focused on non-Arabidopsis systems including rice, pea, tomato, maize, tobacco, lotus, soybean, petunia, selaginella, antirrhinum and cucurbits. There were also 776 poster presentations and 8 community-organized workshops (facilitated by conference staff) featuring 45 additional oral presentations. Workshop topics included "Linking stress signals to growth," "TAIR workshop," "Ubiquitination in plant development and signaling," "Web services for Arabidopsis data integration and bioinformatics tools for Arabidopsis microarray databases," "Chemical genetics," "Proteomics," "Metabolomics," and "Peptide signal transduction in plants." The total amount of USDA awards distributed in 2007 was $10,000, which consisted of 10 awards of $1,000 each to defray travel costs of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. An informal luncheon was held for Underrepresented Minorities awards recipients of NSF funding.

Publications

• No publications reported this period