This conference, which is expected to have 200-250 participants, will focus on the molecular mechanisms of sensing and response in several bacterial systems. The meeting format is designed to foster extensive discussions of recent developments and ideas among researchers from the United States and abroad. The program will include approximately 60 oral presentations and 100 posters, allowing virtually all laboratories working in this rapidly moving field to present their key findings. A significant portion of conference funds will be used to cover the travel and registration expenses of graduate student participants. Scientific sessions will compare the sensory and locomotor systems of a variety of prokaryotes. Presentations will focus on each fundamental step in the signal transduction pathways: (a) transmembrane signaling by chemo- and photo-receptors and their adaptation by covalent modifications, (b) signal transmission by intracellular phosphorelay cascades, (c) sensory control of cellular motility, gene expression and development, and (d) the mechanics of cell motility. Bacterial sensory systems have important roles in microbial ecology and pathogenesis, and provide useful models for understanding analogous signaling systems in eukaryotes. This series of conferences, of which this is the fifth biennial meeting, has become the principal forum for investigators in the field to present current findings and to discuss emerging concepts of bacterial sensing and motility. A summary of the conference will be published to provide a readily accessible overview of the present state of the field to others.
