The project is to convene the 10th US-Japan Seminar on Plant-Pathogen Interactions. The workshop is being organized by scholars from both Japan and the US and is to be held in Corvallis, Oregon, January 24-28, 2010. The general purpose of this recurring workshop is to promote collaborative activities between US and Japanese researchers in specific, cutting-edge areas of the analysis of the interaction of microbial pathogens with plant hosts. The theme for the 10th workshop is Genome-Enabled Integration of Research in Plant-Pathogen Systems. The advent of genomics, that is, a comprehensive knowledge of all the genes within an organism, and the technologies that genome knowledge is facilitating, are having tremendous impact on the study of plant-pathogen interactions. Aspects of parasitism and the ensuing host response, their interrelation and the technologies and systems-level approaches being developed to explore them will be highlights of this workshop. The development and exchange of such information is critical to our abilities to understand and maintain natural plant populations and to effectively produce the variety of plant products needed for such things as food, fiber and fuel for the present and future. The broader impacts of the proposed activity are multifaceted. Since its inception, this series of workshops has successfully fostered critical scientific discussion, the exchange of ideas and materials and the formation of productive research collaborations between US and Japanese investigators. In this, the 10th Seminar, a particular emphasis is given to training and promoting the development of collaborations involving a diverse group of young scholars including graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from both Japan and the US. An additional outcome of the meeting will be the dissemination of the activities of the workshop to the broader research community through publication of the Proceedings as a book.
Funds were provided to support the 10th US-Japan Seminar on Plant-Pathogen Interactions: Genome enabled integration of research in plant-pathogen systems. The workshop was jointly organized by scholars from both Japan and the US. Japanese organizers included Dr. Tomonori Shiraishi from the Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology at Okayama University and Dr. Kazuya Akimitsu from the Faculty of Agriculture at Kagawa University. US organizers included Dr. Alan Collmer from the Department of Plant Pathology at Cornell University, Dr. Jane Glazebrook from the Department of Plant Biology, University of Minnesota and Dr. Tom Wolpert from the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University. The Japanese organizers coordinated the Japanese participant invitation including Japanese students and postdoctorates and the US organizers coordinated the US participant invitation, including US students and postdoctorates. The purpose of this recurring workshop is to promote collaborative activities between US and Japanese researchers in specific, cutting-edge areas of the molecular analysis of the interaction of microbial pathogens with plant hosts. The theme for the 10th workshop was Genome-enabled integration of research in plant-pathogen systems. Intellectual Merit: The advent of genomics, which has facilitated genome-enabled interrogation, is having tremendous impact on the study of plant-pathogen interactions. Aspects of parasitism and defense, their interrelation and the technologies and terminologies being developed to explore them were presented and discussed in this workshop and constitute the primary intellectual merit of the activity. Broader Impacts: The broader impacts of the activity are multifaceted. Since the inaugural Seminar in 1966, this series of workshops has successfully fostered critical scientific discussion, the exchange of ideas and materials and the formation of productive research collaborations between US and Japanese investigators. In this, the 10th Seminar, a particular emphasis was given to training and promoting the development of collaborations involving a diverse group of young scholars including undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from both Japan and the US. An additional immediate outcome of the meeting is the dissemination of the activities of the workshop to the broader research community through publication of the Proceedings as a book.
