The domain Archaea is one of the three domains of life, and organisms in this domain are distinct from organisms in either the domain Bacteria (eubacteria) or the domain Eucarya (eukaryotes). Although archaeal organisms represent approximately one third of life's evolutionary diversity and display many interesting and practical properties and activities, Archaea are much less characterized than are organisms from the other two domains. The Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Archaea grew out of a GRC on methanogenesis, which was held every three years from 1984-1993. The first GRC on Archaea was held in 1996, and at the second meeting held in 1999, the participants voted unanimously to make it a reoccurring meeting. The 2001 meeting had an interdisciplinary program, stressing genomics, unusual metabolism, transcription and its regulation. A similar theme with added sessions (ecodiversity, extremophilic proteins, functional genomics) was pursued in 2003. The 2005 conference will emphasize emerging topics including systems biology, proteomics and biotechnology. These changes expand on the number of impacted NSF programs and include PIs funded in MCB, DEB, and BES. Specific programs are itemized in the suggested reviewers sections. The conference has a diverse and gender-balanced slate of speakers and session leaders. NSF support for this conference will allow more participants including students and postdocs to attend the GRC, facilitating interaction between junior and established American and international scientists.
