Funds will support a new conference entitled "Workshop on Plant Development and Drought Stress" to be held from November 1 to November 4, 2015 at Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, CA. The purpose of this meeting is to bring together plant developmental biologists and plant stress biologists in order to generate a better understanding of how plant growth and development are altered by drought and related environmental stresses. Related stresses include heat or the high concentrations of salt that can affect irrigated fields. Plant stress biologists strive to understand cellular responses to harsh environments: for instance what protective metabolites the cell makes in response to drought and the nature of the machinery the cell uses to sense a harsh environment. Plant development is the study of how plants grow: for instance how plants make new body parts, such as leaves and stem, from groups of stem cells at the tips of branches, how cells of different types become organized in roots, stems and leaves and how plants control their size. The proposed workshop brings both groups of scientists together for three days. It is expected the synergy resulting from interactions between the two groups of scientists will lead to advances in understanding how plants alter their growth and development in response to a lack of water. This in turn is expected to lead to improved strategies for breeding drought tolerant plants. Postdoctoral researchers and graduate students will be chosen from submitted abstracts for travel scholarships, with priority given to individuals from underrepresented groups.
Over the last two decades, both fields on their own - developmental biology and stress biology - have reached high levels of sophistication with detailed knowledge of core mechanisms. Much is now known of the regulatory networks controlling development and likewise the regulatory networks controlling stress responses. The fields are therefore ripe for exploring known development and stress networks for overlap and interaction. Invited speakers who are recognized leaders in their fields will present talks. Speakers will also be chosen based on the excellence and relevance of their submitted abstracts. Junior investigators (graduate students, postdocs and assistant professors) will be encouraged to apply for speaking slots. Efforts will be made to include speakers and attendees from groups underrepresented in the sciences. To assure an informal atmosphere that allows for ample give and take between scientists the workshop will be limited to 100 attendees.
