Meeting: Plants Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Interface between Plant Abiotic and Biotic Stress Responses

在世界范围内，人类依靠植物获得食物、纤维和燃料，所有国家都面临着到2050年为90亿人种植粮食，同时减少农业的碳、肥料和水足迹的艰巨任务。此外，普遍的预测是，全球气候变化将破坏植物生长条件的稳定，二氧化碳水平上升，气温和降水剧烈波动。这些不利的条件可能会有利于植物病原体传播到新的地理区域，使农业问题更加严重。这种情况增加了以仅靠育种无法满足的速度开发抗非生物胁迫、病原体和害虫的作物的需要。非生物和生物胁迫的结合不仅威胁着农业，而且还威胁着自然环境中履行重要生态系统服务功能的植物。应对这些重大挑战将需要继续致力于跨学科和协调一致的研究工作，以了解植物对组合胁迫的反应机制和遗传潜力。2015年跨学科植物组(IPG)研讨会将于2015年5月27日至29日在密苏里大学举行，主题是岩石和硬地之间的植物：非生物和生物胁迫反应之间的界面，以促进对更复杂环境条件下植物对多种胁迫反应的研究。它将汇集21位世界领先的植物逆境生物学专家，在两天半的时间里分享他们的研究成果，目的是提供一个平台，促进致力于不同植物逆境的科学家社区之间的跨学科互动、联网和活跃的思想交流。该项目的一个同样重要的目标是促进一个包括学生和博士后研究人员在内的支持性会议，目的是促进将对植物逆境生物学不同主题的有价值的见解从一代科学家转移到下一代科学家。海报演讲、快速海报和海报会议将扩大这些早期职业科学家的参与。该项目包括共同努力，让最多三名来自少数族裔服务机构的本科生参加研讨会，他们将与密苏里大学夏季本科生研究实习计划一起招募，以及来自以本科生为主的中西部机构的本科生及其教师导师。

Worldwide, humans rely on plants for food, fiber, and fuel, and all nations face the daunting task of growing food for nine billion people by 2050 while at the same time reducing the carbon, fertilizer and water footprint of agriculture. In addition, the consensus prediction is that global climate change will destabilize the conditions for plant growth with higher CO2 levels and severe fluctuations in temperature and precipitation. These adverse conditions will likely favor the spread of plant pathogens into new geographic areas, compounding the problems for agriculture. Such a scenario increases the need to develop crops resistant to abiotic stress, pathogens and pests at a speed that cannot be met by breeding alone. The combination of abiotic and biotic stresses not only threatens agriculture, but also plants in natural environments that fulfill important ecosystem services. Addressing these major challenges will require a continued commitment to interdisciplinary and concerted research efforts to understand the mechanisms and genetic potential of plants responding to a combination of stresses.The 2015 Interdisciplinary Plant Group (IPG) Symposium, to be held from May 27 to 29, 2015 at the University of Missouri, has the theme Plants between a rock and a hard place: the interface between abiotic and biotic stress responses to promote the study of plant responses to multiple stresses under more complex environmental conditions. It will bring together 21 of the world's leading experts in plant stress biology to share their research over a two-and-a-half day period with the aim of providing a platform that promotes cross-disciplinary interactions, networking, and a lively exchange of ideas among the communities of scientists working on different plant stresses. An equally important goal of this project is to foster a supportive conference that includes students and post-doctoral researchers with the aim of improving the transfer of valuable insights into diverse topics in plant stress biology from one generation of scientists to the next. Poster talks, speed posters, and poster sessions will broaden participation by these early-career scientists. The project includes a concerted effort to enable attendance of the symposium by up to three undergraduate students from minority-serving institutions who will be recruited in conjunction with the University of Missouri summer undergraduate research internship program, along with undergraduate students and their faculty mentors from Midwest institutions that serve predominantly undergraduate students.