The Twenty Second Fungal Genetics Conference will be held at the Asilomar Conference Center at Asilomar, California on March 18-23, 2003. Approximately 750 scientists and students from around the world will attend. The conference focuses on the molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry and cell biology of filamentous fungi. This is considered by many to be the pre-eminent meeting in this area and promotes interaction between researchers interested in medical pathogens, plant pathogens, saprobic fungi and symbiotic fungi. The twenty second meeting will consist of four plenary sessions, four sessions devoted to concurrent workshops in specialized areas, three poster sessions and informal discussions. Topics to be covered in the plenary sessions are: Fungal Cell Biology, Fungal-Host Interactions, Signaling and Silencing and Genomes and Evolution. Specialized concurrent sessions are planed to cover: Targeting and secretion of proteins, Stress responses in fungi, The fungal cytoplasm, Hyphal morphogenesis, Reactive oxygen in development and pathogenesis, Secondary metabolism and mycotoxins, Biotrophic fungal-plant interactions, Medical mycology, Fungal genomics, Chromatin modification and gene expression, Gene regulation (metabolic regulation), Chromosome organization, Photobiology and clocks, Gene clusters and horizontal gene transfer, Mating type regulation and sexual development, Epigenetics, vegetative incompatibility, prions, Teaching fungal genetics, Oomycete molecular genetics, Functional genomics & high throughput screening and Spores and sporulation. In this meeting strong emphasis is placed on the participation of young scientists and students, particularly those from underrepresented groups. Funds are requested to help defray the travel and participation costs of students, postdoctoral researchers and some invited speakers and will be distributed on a need basis.
