SYMPOSIUM: "Osmoregulation: An Integrated Approach, to be held at the annual conferences of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, January 4-8, 2000 in Atlanta, GA

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The symposium, to be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, January 4-8, 2000, will address the mechanisms by which living things cope with osmotic stress. Aquatic and terrestrial organisms encounter changes in the salt composition of external and internal fluids that may alter the function of enzymes and the shape of cells. These osmotic challenges are met by a repertoire of regulatory responses at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels. The twelve speakers in the symposium, drawn from Europe, Canada, and the United States, will summarize the current state of knowledge of osmoregulatory mechanisms in bacteria, yeast, plants, and animals. Techniques of molecular biology, cell imaging, and remote sensing will be described as they apply to questions to ion regulation, volume regulation, and cell surface regulation. The symposium will consider the overall question from the level of protein molecules to whole organism behavior, in a sufficient variety of organims to begin to recognize patterns. To the PIs knowledge, this symposium represents the first time that such a synthesis has been attempted.