The Keystone Symposia Meeting on "Nuclear Events in Plant Gene Expression and Signaling will be held March 6-10, 2012 at the Sagebrush Inn and Conference Center in Taos, New Mexico. This conference aims to stimulate the synthesis of an integrative view of nuclear dynamics in plant biology. Keystone Symposia meetings have an excellent reputation for initiating and fostering collaborations, and for participation by trainees and other junior investigators. The specific objectives of the conference include: 1) Break the confines of (often artificially defined) fields of study to broaden the vision and resources of scientists and 2) Educate new and future scientists.
Broader Impacts The organizers of Keystone Symposia meetings strive to promote and ensure diversity (including women and underrepresented groups) in the speaker lineup and in meeting participation. There will be early career scientists, students and postdoctoral trainees attending the meeting. Overall, the conference will provide a unique opportunity for scientific and professional development of trainees and newer investigators.
The Keystone Symposia meeting on "Nuclear Events in Plant Gene Expression and Signaling" was conceived and organized around the central goal of stimulating the synthesis of an integrative view of nuclear dynamics in plant biology. Much has been learned in recent years about the sequence and structure of plant genomes as well as nuclear processes that impact the maintenance, segregation, and expression of genomes, such as chromatin modifications, transcription, and RNA processing. However, a holistic view of the maintenance and expression of plant genomes requires new thinking outside of the immediate field of study, the application of new technologies, and the education of the next generation of scientists. By providing a platform for effective communications among scientists, educators and students, this meeting contributed to the long-term goal of advancing our understanding of plant genomes and nuclear processes in gene expression. This was the first meeting of its kind to tie together seemingly unrelated topics such as epigenetics, RNA biology, and cell biology with a common theme to stimulate creative ideas and novel research venues to better understand plant genomes. Plenary and short talks, poster sessions and unstructured informal discussions were all used to address key issues in plant genomes research. This grant supported the attendance of 8 trainees at this meeting There were 122 total attendees at the meeting. Attendees were diverse with regard to gender, ethnicity, stage of career, and institutional affiliation. More specifically, 39% of the meeting participants were female researchers, and ~2% of all attendees (or ~5% of attendees who were US citizens or permanent residents) self-identified as scientists from under-represented minority groups. The meeting was highly international, drawing 52% non-US attendees. Approximately 34% of attendees were students and postdoctoral fellows. The meeting provided ample opportunity for training and professional development. Plenary sessions included short talks drawn from submitted abstracts and most of the presenters were students, postdoctoral trainees and newer investigators. Trainees and newer investigators were exposed to dozens of high-quality oral presentations by more senior investigators, who served as models for high-quality research and communication skills. Two poster sessions provided opportunities for trainees and newer investigators to share their research and to discuss this research with more experienced investigators. Finally, the unstructured portions of the meeting and the retreat-like venue provided significant and generous opportunities for productive informal interactions between trainees, newer investigators and more senior investigators. We assessed outcomes with regard to attendee perceptions of the quality and impact of this meeting through post-conference surveys sent via email. We received responses from 77 (63%) attendees. The survey results demonstrated that attendees felt that the meeting was of high quality and value. For example, nearly all (99%) of exit survey respondents agreed that their scientific expectations for this meeting were met, 98% rated the scientific content as very good to excellent, and 95% of respondents agreed that presentations provided usable ideas and/or techniques. In summary, this Keystone Symposia meeting played a crucial role in advancing knowledge in gene and genome regulation in plants. By bringing together scientists from traditionally independent research fields, such as chromatin, RNA processing, small RNAs, and cell biology, this meeting promoted intellectual synthesis and research collaborations across fields.
