Workshop on Functional Analysis of the Arabidopsis Genome: Project 2010 to be held at the Salk Institute, La Jolla, California, January 13-14, 2000

生物学家正在吸收一种新的范式。经过一代人一次一个或几个的特征基因之后，科学家现在可以获得许多细菌物种和几个真核生物的完整基因组序列，包括参考植物拟南芥。生物学家现在设想有一天，他们最喜欢的生物的完整基因组序列或其替代品将出现在强大的电子数据库中。对这些信息的获取，以及利用这些信息的新工具，将深刻改变我们选择和处理生物学问题的方式。这反过来将直接影响定向遗传方法在经济上重要的植物改良中的应用。植物生物学家社区提出了一项重要的革命性新倡议-到2010年了解所有植物基因的功能。在这份任务声明中，隐含着对资源分配的认可，这些资源试图将功能分配给没有已知功能的基因。这与以生物现象为基础定义和证明科学目标的普遍做法大相径庭。支持这一根本改变的理由是，植物生物学家第一次可以设想一种完整的系统方法来研究植物的形态和功能。这种整个系统方法的效率有望比传统方法高出几个数量级。我们预计，一旦基因组学的效率得到实现，在下一个十年内，将重新强调以问题为导向的方法，并进一步强调理解多样性。这次研讨会的目的是进一步讨论在2010年之前启动一个由联邦政府资助的项目以确定所有植物基因的功能(S)的可行性。研讨会参与者将确定在任何关于建立国家计划的建议中应考虑的基本特征，以启动对基因功能研究的系统方法。与会者将讨论在一个正在建立多学科中心来解决复杂研究问题的时代，个人研究人员发起的研究的作用，以及个人实验室和中心可能在这一努力中发挥的作用。该小组还将讨论“2010项目”可能对基础植物研究进展以及美国在农业、能源和环境方面的战略利益产生的影响。最后，研讨会参与者将讨论在美国与其他国家已经在进行或正在考虑的类似项目的努力协调问题。

Biologists are in the midst of assimilating a new paradigm. After a generation of characterizing genes one or a few at a time, scientists now have access to the complete genome sequences of many bacterial species and several eukaryotes including the reference plant Arabidopsis. Biologists now envision the day when the complete genome sequence of their favorite organisms, or a proxy thereof, will be available in powerful electronic databases. Access to this information, and new tools that exploit it, will profoundly alter the ways in which we select and approach questions in biology. This, in turn, will directly impact the application of directed genetic methods to the improvement of economically important plants.An important and revolutionary new initiative -to understand the function of all plant genes by the year 2010- has been proposed by the community of plant biologists. Implicit in this mission statement is an endorsement of the allocation of resources to attempts to assign function to genes that have no known function. This represents a significant departure from the common practice of defining and justifying a scientific goal based on the biological phenomena. The rationale for endorsing this radical change is that for the first time it is feasible for plant biologists to envision a whole system approach to study of plant form and function. This whole system approach promises to be orders of magnitude more efficient than the conventional approach. We envision that once the efficiencies of genomics have been realized, within the next decade, there will be a renewed emphasis on problem-oriented approaches and an expanded emphasis on understanding diversity.The aim of this workshop is to further discuss the feasibility of commencing a federally funded project to determine the function(s) of all plant genes by the year 2010. The workshop participants will identify essential features that should be considered in any proposal for the establishment of a national program to initiate a systems approach to the study of gene function. The participants will discuss the role of individual investigator initiated research in an era where multidisciplinary centers are being established to approach complex research problems and the possible roles that individual laboratories and centers may play in this effort. This group will also discuss the possible impact that the "2010 project" would have on the progress of basic plant research as well as on the strategic interests of the United States as they relate to agriculture, energy and the environment. Finally, the workshop participants will discuss issues of coordination of efforts in the United States with similar programs already underway or being consider by other nations.