Advances in the basic sciences of genetics, biochemistry and plant physiology in the 20th Century resulted in dramatic increases in agricultural productivity worldwide. Still, more than 800 million people suffer from starvation or malnutrition (U.S. National Academy of Sciences, 2000). Dramatic population growth , along with urbanization of arable land, increasing stress from newly emerging pests and pathogens, declining water supplies, global warming, and soil salinization , are world challenges for developing an adequate and sustainable food supply. This project requests support to bring together 100-120 scientists at all career levels, from academia, government and industry, to share new data on the molecular, genetic and biochemical basis of plant responses to temperature. Temperature is a major environmental variable that impacts plant establishment, growth and reproduction, determining species distribution in nature, area suitable for agriculture and crop yield. Participants will advance our basic understanding of how plants sense and respond to temperature, define the types of damage plants experience during temperature stress, identify stress-protective mechanisms and their regulatory pathways, and discuss breeding and transgenic approaches towards enhancing plant temperature stress tolerance. Advances in this field will contribute not only to fundamental plant science, but ultimately will contribute to the important goal of providing the world's population with a sustainable food supply.
