Meeting: FASEB Conference on Mechanisms in Plant Development, July 30 - August 4, 2017 Saxtons River, Vermont, USA

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Non-technical description:This project will promote interactions and information exchange between biologists who are using different scientific approaches to resolve how plants--the major sources of our food--grow and develop. These interactions will take place at the 15th International meeting on Mechanisms in Plant Development, which will be held from July 30th to August 4th 2017 in Saxtons River, Vermont, USA. This meeting is the only regularly held international conference devoted entirely to plant developmental biology, the study of how plants grow and make different structures, such as leaves, fruits and grains, that are critical to our agricultural economy. Discoveries in developmental biology may help improve crop yield, quality and stress tolerance, as well as reducing needs for fertilizers and other inputs. This project is special because the small size and secluded location of the meeting make it a fantastic opportunity for discussion of new ideas and emerging concepts, as well as for developing professional networks. Half of the meeting time will be devoted to presentations from early career, women and underrepresented minority scientists. The results of the conference will be summarized by meeting participants and made available to the general public by postings on publicly accessible websites including 'The Node'. Materials will also be provided directly to participants to spread the exciting new findings presented at the meeting.Technical description:This conference is an important and unique scientific meeting where the intersections of plant development, signaling, modeling and genomics are explored through talks, poster sessions, and intensive scientific discussion. The meeting includes outstanding researchers from around the world, presenting cutting edge research directed towards a fundamental understanding of how different aspects of plant growth and development are controlled in response to intrinsic and external signals, and how such mechanisms are modified over evolutionary time. This meeting will cover broad areas of plant development, including sessions on local and long-range signals, the interface between cell and developmental biology, new approaches to modeling development and plants emerging as new models for important developmental traits. This year includes more plant/environmental interactions (biotic and abiotic) because plant life histories combined with new technologies make plants especially well-suited to pioneer an understanding of the positive and negative interactions between a complex multicellular organism and the world around it. The conference will also promote education of a diverse group of scientists at all career levels. Graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and young faculty will be strongly encouraged to submit poster abstracts, and nearly half the speakers will be chosen from these submitted abstracts. Participation by underrepresented minority and female scientists will also be strongly encouraged; this will be achieved by identification and encouragement of individuals, by contacting networks and academic institutions that serve underrepresented minorities, as well as by advertising the conference widely. The results of the conference will be widely disseminated through a written summary posted online and slides to be used by meeting participants to spread the exciting new findings presented.