Source: WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
2019 ASPB MIDWESTERN SECTION MEETING
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1018778
Grant No.
2019-67014-29243
Cumulative Award Amt.
$15,000.00
Proposal No.
2018-06289
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Mar 1, 2019
Project End Date
Feb 29, 2020
Grant Year
2019
Program Code
[A1152]- Physiology of Agricultural Plants
Recipient Organization
WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY
886 CHESTNUT RIDGE RD RM 202
MORGANTOWN,WV 26505-2742
Performing Department
Davis College
Non Technical Summary
The growing global demand for food production in a changing environment and with increasingly limited natural resources poses enormous challenges for agriculture. Thus, the development of innovative and sustainable strategies for the production of crops and plant-based products is urgently needed. However, solutions to these problems require an increased knowledge of fundamental and applied aspects of plant biology, as well as the recruiting, training and mentoring of a growing number of students and young scientists in the field of plant biology. The goal of the 2019 American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Midwestern Section Meeting is to provide a platform for the presentation and discussion of ongoing plant biology research, as well as to create a nurturing environment for the training and mentoring of early career plant scientists. This meeting will be held March 16-17, 2019 at West Virginia University (Morgantown, WV). To achieve this goal, all participating undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdocs will have the opportunity to showcase their research projects as oral or poster presentation. We have also invited four keynote speakers to highlight some of the latest cutting edge research in plant biology, and address aspects of career development important to young plant scientists. Although partially supported by ASPB and West Virginia University, the conference critically depends on additional financial support through a strengthening conference grant in particular to provide assistance toward travel costs for undergraduate and graduate students. The overall topic of the ASPB Midwestern Section Meeting 'Plant Biology' fits immediately in the Program Area of "Plant Health and Production and Plant Products" and more specifically to the Program Area Priority "Physiology of Agricultural Plants" (Program-Code A1152) including such research areas as 1. Plant growth and developmental processes, 2. Plant response to abiotic stresses including water use efficiency, 3. Photosynthetic efficiency, carbon assimilation and source-sink relationship, 4. Primary and secondary metabolism, 5. Nutrient uptake, assimilation, accumulation and/or utilization, and 6. Harnessing plant biochemistry and biodiversity to develop bio-based plant products. Moreover, we anticipate that some of the topics that will be featured at this multidisciplinary meeting will also provide links to other priority areas within the "Plant Health and Production and Plant Products" program area including: 1. Foundational Knowledge of Agricultural Production Systems, 2. Pest and Beneficial Species in Agricultural Production Systems, 3. Plant Breeding for Agricultural Production, 4. Pollinator Health, 5. Agricultural Microbiomes in Plant Systems and Natural Resources.
Animal Health Component
30%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
70%
Applied
30%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
2062499102040%
2012410108020%
2032499100020%
2152499104020%
Knowledge Area
206 - Basic Plant Biology; 215 - Biological Control of Pests Affecting Plants; 203 - Plant Biological Efficiency and Abiotic Stresses Affecting Plants; 201 - Plant Genome, Genetics, and Genetic Mechanisms;

Subject Of Investigation
2410 - Cross-commodity research--multiple crops; 2499 - Plant research, general;

Field Of Science
1040 - Molecular biology; 1000 - Biochemistry and biophysics; 1080 - Genetics; 1020 - Physiology;
Goals / Objectives
Through the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) West Virginia University (WVU) will host the 2019 ASPB Midwestern Section Meeting from March 16-17, 2019. The meeting will provide a platform for the presentation of ongoing research from diverse areas of plant biology, lively discussions to establish new ideas and collaborations, as well as to create a nurturing environment for the training and mentoring of young scientists. Our supporting objectives are to:1) Enable all participating young scientists to showcase their research projects as oral or poster presentation.2) Invite four featured/keynote speakers to highlight some of the latest and cutting edge research in plant biology, and address aspects of career development relevant to early career plant scientists.3) Provide a respectful, collegial and confidential atmosphere for discussing unpublished research from early career plant scientists.4) Foster the development of lasting professional ties and collaborations among participants.
Project Methods
To achieve the specific objectives proposed in this project we will utilize the following methods:1) To enable many early career scientists, in particular undergraduate and graduate students, to attend the meeting it will be critical to provide travel awards for them. The need for such financial support becomes evident considering the more eastern location of West Virginia University, and the geographical size of the ASBP Midwestern Section reaching as far as Nebraska and the Dakotas in the West and Oklahoma in the South. A significant part of the requested funds will thus be utilized to provide travel awards to approximately 50 - 60 students (undergraduate and graduate) that will range from $ 100 to $ 250 depending on the distance between their home institution and the hosting West Virginia University.2) We have invited one keynote speaker, Dr. Elizabeth Haswell (Washington University), as well as the three featured speakers, Dr. Jean-Michel Ané (University of Wisconsin), Dr. Gregg Howe (Michigan State University), and Dr. Steve DiFazio (West Virginia University), that will not only highlight some of the latest research in plant biology in their presentations, but to also address aspects of career development relevant to the younger plant scientists. Thus, some of the requested funds will be used to cover the costs for travel and lodging for the three external invited keynote/featured speakers.3) All participating young scientists will not only have the chance to present their research projects, either as oral presentation or as poster, but also will have the opportunity for informal discussions with mentors from academia, research institutions, and industry about perspectives of where the field of fundamental and applied plant science is moving as well as career development. Moreover, the meeting will provide a unique opportunity for these early career scientists to establish and build connections in the community of plant scientists. The organizing committee will intensively encourage all attendees to stay over the entire conference and to attend all the oral and poster sessions. This will serve to enhance a lively atmosphere for discussion and the mixing of all attendees, which has become a hallmark the ASPB Midwestern Section Meetings. We are publicizing the conference in several ways. The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) and the ASPB Midwestern Section both host web sites (https://aspb.org; https://midwest.aspb.org) on which our conference is listed and which present information about the conference agenda and speakers, as well as detailed information about the application process, abstract submission, travel grants, travel/lodging and site information, etc. We are also posting the conference on various electronic bulletin boards frequented by potential participants and will regularly communicate developments in Twitter, Facebook and other social media that are increasingly being used by the next generation of scientists. We also have a large e-mail list of previous attendees and other interested parties which we utilize to announce the upcoming meeting and disseminate latest updates. The title and abstracts of all conference presentations will be posted on the ASPB Midwest section webpage (https://midwest.aspb.org/) and made available to all conference participants.

Progress 03/01/19 to 02/29/20

Outputs
Target Audience:The 2019 annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Midwestern Section took place at West Virginia University on March 16 and 17, and broughttogether 110participating plant scientists at all career levels. The program of the meetingincluded presentations by 11 undergraduate students, 49graduate students, 10 post-docs and 5 other early career scientists. The attending plant scientistsrepresentedinstitutions from academia, industry, and government laboratories from 10 of the 15 memberstates of the ASPB Midwestern Section including Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?11 undergraduate students, 49graduate students, 10 post-docs and 5 other early career scientists attended the2019 annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Midwestern Sectionat West Virginia University. Except of the 4 presentations by the invited keynote/featured speakers all other 30 oral presentations as well as all 45 poster presentations showcased research by students, postdocs and other early career plant scientists. All oral and poster presentations of undergraduate and graduate students were judged by more experienced plant scientists and three presentations of superior quality in each of the four categories were awarded at the end of the meeting. The award recipients were subsequently also announced in the ASPB Midwestern Section Newsletter (Volume 5, Issue 3) in Spring/Summer 2019. The two poster sessions as well as the refreshment breaks in between sessions, and a banquet dinner provided ample time and a lively atmosphere for discussion of research, mentoring and networking of the students and early career scietinsts. The invited keynote speaker and the three invited featured speakers in their presentations not only highlighted some of their latest research in plant biology, but in addition also addressed aspects of career development relevant to the students and early career scientists. In addition, students and postdocs had the opportunity to attend a career panel discussion over lunch break.Rick Turcotte (USDA Forest Service), Dave Robinson (Bellarmine University), Sanju Sanjaya (West Virginia State University), Christoph Benning (Michigan State University), Kayla Flyckt (Corteva Agriscience), and Clayton Larue (Bayer Crop Science) engaged students and postdocs, sharing experiences throughout their career paths that led to their present positions. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The full program of the 2019 ASPB Midwestern Section Meeting including the abstracts (with list of authors and respective affiliations) of all 4 keynote/featured speakers as well as30 oral presentations and 45 poster presentations by students and postdocs was made available to all attendees of the meeting. The printed and online version of the meeting program also acknowleged the support of the meeting by this USDA NIFA AFRI award. A report about the2019 ASPB Midwestern Section Meeting held at West Virginia University authored by Dr. Kathrine Schrick, Chair of the ASPB Midwest Section, was published in the ASPB Midwestern Section Newsletter (Volume 5, Issue 3) in Spring/Summer 2019. In addition,Dave Robinson (Bellarmine University) attended the conferenceand later reported from the2019 ASPB Midwestern Section Meetingin his radio show on Louisville's Forward Radio 'Bench Talk: The Week in Science' (https://www.forwardradio.org/bench-talk). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1: The 2019 annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Midwestern Section took place at West Virginia University on March 16 and 17, and broughttogether 110participating plant scientists at all career levels. The program of the meetingincluded presentations by 11 undergraduate students, 49graduate students, 10 post-docs and 5 other early career scientists.30 oral presentations as well as45 poster presentations showcased the research of these students, postdocs and early career plant scientists. 21 of the attending students and early career scientists were supported with travel awards of different amounts depending on the distance between their home institution and the hosting West Virginia University. Award recipients traveled from 8 different member states of the ASPB Midwestern Section includingIllinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Objective 2: One keynote speaker, Dr. Elizabeth Haswell (Washington University), as well as the three featured speakers, Dr. Jean-Michel Ané (University of Wisconsin), Dr. Gregg Howe (Michigan State University), and Dr. Steve DiFazio (West Virginia University), were invited to the meeting. All four invited speakers not only highlighted some of the latest research in plant biology in their presentations, but to also addressed aspects of career development relevant to the younger plant scientists. The keynote speaker, Dr. Elizabeth Haswell, after reporting on her lab's innovative research in the area of plant mechanobiology, also expanded on the theme of outreach and social media. Shedescribed her involvement with the Plantae podcast Taproot that she co-initiated a few years ago.The featured speakers, Gregg Howe (Michigan State U.), Steve DiFazio (WVU) and Jean Michel Ané (U. of Wisconsin), unveiled fascinating new information on plant defense, the genomics of sex determination, and symbiosis for nitrogen utilization. Objectives 3 and 4: Two poster sessions as well as the refreshment breaks before and in between sessions, and a banquet dinner provided ample time and a lively atmosphere for discussion of research, mentoring and networking of students and early career scietinsts as well as more senior scientists.In addition, students and postdocs had the opportunity to attend a career panel discussion over lunch break. The panel members represented academia, goverment agencies and industry, and engaged students and postdocs bysharing experiences throughout their career paths that led to their present positions.

Publications