The 9th Yeast Chromosome Structure, Replication, and Segregation Conference sponsored by FASEB will be held on 24-29 June, 2006 at Indian Wells, California, and thereafter in 2008 (10th Conference) and 2010 (11th Conference). The Conference will provide up to 250 places for students, postdocs, and senior investigators to meet and discuss novel findings of the past year. This conference is the latest iteration in a highly successful series that uniquely combines researchers investigating different aspects of chromosome function. As in the past, invited speakers will present their most recent work, with some talks chosen from the abstracts. In addition, there is ample time for discussion and poster presentations. ? ? Research into yeast chromosome structure, and the mechanisms and control of chromosome replication and segregation, continues at a rapid pace and underpins related research in mammalian cells. Recent advances provide new insights into nuclear organization, the role of histone modification in chromatin silencing and DNA damage response, the control of DNA replication, the role of protein degradation in cell cycle transitions in general and chromosome segregation in particular, the molecular pathways of checkpoint responses, kinetochore structure and function, the connection between telomere maintenance and DNA double stranded break repair, and the assembly and function of the mitotic spindle. Because of the powerful combination of biochemical, cell biological, and genetic tools, as well as more recently genomic technologies now at the disposal of yeast researchers, studies in budding and fission yeasts have led the field in many of these areas. Most of the proteins and mechanisms employed by yeast cells are conserved in human cells, making this work directly relevant to human biology. Indeed, chromosome function and genome integrity are fundamental to many aspects of human health, and are directly implicated in cancer, aging, and birth defects. All of these are characterized by disruptions in normal chromosome function, which can be readily studied in yeast. ? ? ?
