Conference: Support for Young Investigators to Attend the 17th International Conference on Plant Growth Substances, July 1-6, 2001, in Brno, Czech Republic

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

Support is requested for an international conference on plant growth and development to be held in Brno, Czech Republic from July 1-6, 2001. This conference will be the 17th in a series of conferences sponsored by the International Plant Growth Substance Association (IPGSA). These meetings are held every three years and the last two were convened in Minnesota (1995) and Makuhari Messe, Tokyo (1998). Progress in understanding the perception and action of plant hormones has advanced at a rapid pace as a result of advances in the areas of genetics and molecular cloning. These advances have led to the identification of genes that are involved in the perception of hormonal signals, and plant biologists are now beginning to unravel the signal transduction pathways that link hormone receptors to cellular response. The recent publication of the complete Arabidopsis thaliana and rice genome sequences will see an even more dramatic advances in our understanding of hormone action, and genomics approaches will feature prominently in the Brno meeting. The goals of the 17th International Conference on Plant Growth Substances are to bring together researchers who are working in this field to report on new developments and to share new ideas. Our goal is to introduce younger investigators to this exciting area and the funds provided from this grant will be used to support the travel and lodging of junior US investigators to this meeting. Topics to be covered in plenary sessions and symposia include signal transduction, hormone homeostasis, the roles of hormones in responses to environmental stresses, the use and application of transgenic plants in hormone research, the identification of new signalling molecules, the interaction of hormones with pathogens and symbionts, and hormone perception and sensitivity. The program promises to be exciting and to stimulate research on plant growth regulators. These compounds have long been established as important for U.S. agriculture, and our understanding of the cellular and molecular basis of their action is essential for the long-term sustainability of agriculture.