Earth's climate is changing, and with it the growth conditions of the crops and animals we depend upon change too. These changes affect many aspects of our lives and threaten our food supply, necessitating both understanding and action. Changes in weather conditions such as heat or cold waves, drought, or flooding can directly impact the growth of crops, as well as alter the balance between crop plants and the pathogens they encounter, potentially resulting in large-scale outbreaks of diseases. In addition, some of these changes can occur simultaneously, for example during a combination of a prolonged drought period and a heat wave, resulting in devastating impacts on our agriculture and economy. How to prepare for such changes and how to attempt to mitigate their impact directly depends on the understanding of basic mechanisms underlying the interaction of plants with different biotic and abiotic stresses, as well as their combination. To address these challenges, as well as to enhance the understanding of basic signaling mechanisms underlying the interaction of plants with different biotic and abiotic stresses, a new addition is organized to the Annual Interdisciplinary Plant Group (IPG) Symposium entitled: "Plant Signaling in Biotic and Abiotic Stress".
The conference entitled: "Plant Signaling in Biotic and Abiotic Stress" will provide a forum in which faculty, students, and postdoctoral fellows, from diverse backgrounds, can interact with prominent scholars in the plant biology community who are all studying signal transduction mechanisms that control plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses, as well as their integration. The intent is to provide a platform that promotes cross-disciplinary interactions, networking, and an exchange of ideas. The expected outcomes of the meeting are: (a) enhanced understanding of how different stresses integrate at the molecular level; (b) enhanced understanding of how this information is communicated from one or more local cells to the entire plant (systemic signaling); and (c) uncovering of key signaling hubs that could be manipulated for enhancing the tolerance of plants to their environment. The planned symposium includes a concerted effort to broaden the participation of undergraduate students, and includes women, minority and young scientists in a significant role as speakers. This award was co-funded by the Physiological Mechanisms and Biomechanics Program and the Integrative Ecological Physiology Program in the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
