2017 Animal Microbe Symbioses GRC & GRS Mount Snow, West Dover, VT

我们正在进入一个微生物在生物世界中的关键功能越来越被认可的时代。微生物发挥的最大作用之一是它们与多细胞宿主的联系，虽然微生物学的历史迄今为止一直集中在病原体的相互作用上，但科学家和公众现在都意识到微生物对其动植物伙伴的健康及其生活环境的影响更大。2017年戈登研究会议（GRC）和相关的戈登研究研讨会（GRS），关于动物-微生物共生，旨在促进生物学这一令人兴奋的领域中最重要和最及时的研究的介绍和讨论。主题范围广泛，涵盖理论到应用方法，使用涉及海洋，淡水和陆地环境中发现的病毒，真菌和细菌的例子。会议和研讨会邀请科学家出席，提出并充分参与这些主题的审查，并带着新的见解，想法和合作回到自己的工作中。对动物有益微生物组的研究最近变得非常活跃，部分原因是研究不可培养生物体的方法取得了重大进展，例如分子生物学技术（例如，“组学”）和在单细胞水平上结合关于身份和功能的联合收割机信息的成像方法。这些和其他新方法为动物及其微生物群之间的互利关系提供了新的和意想不到的见解。有一个异常年轻和热情的人口为这个领域，已加强了从免疫学，行为和发育生物学等领域建立的调查人员的吸引力。有助于推动微生物组研究的影响的一个重要因素是一个经常性的，高质量的会议，结合了哺乳动物和非哺乳动物模型系统的最佳，着眼于应用生物信息学，测序，数学建模和成像方法的最新技术进展，以了解它们的机制。这样一个会议，在关注动物-微生物共生的同时，也应该包括植物共生和病原微生物等相关领域，他们的不同观点可以激发新的想法。2017年GRC/GRS旨在开发新的互动，以推动这种智力综合。这两次会议发挥了关键作用，通过展示简短的口头介绍沿着特邀演讲者的讲座，加强和确保早期职业和高级科学家的参与和知名度。这是一个令人兴奋的时刻，成为这样一个生物冒险的一部分，也是动物微生物共生中的GRC/GRS产生重大影响的绝佳机会。

We are entering an era in which the critical functions of microbes in the biological world are increasingly recognized. One of the largest roles microorganisms play is in their associations with multicellular hosts and, while the history of microbiology has to this point concentrated on pathogenic interactions, both scientists and the public are now aware of the even greater impact that microbes have on the health of their animal and plant partners, and of the environments in which they live. The 2017 Gordon Research Conference (GRC), and associated Gordon Research Seminar (GRS), on Animal-Microbe Symbioses seek to promote the presentation and discussion of the most important and timely research in this exciting area of biology. The range of topics is broad, covering theoretical to the applied approaches, using examples involving viruses, fungi and bacteria, found in marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments. The conference and seminar invite scientists to attend, present and participate fully in the examination of these topics, and to return to their own work with new insights, ideas and collaborations. Research on the beneficial microbiomes of animals has recently become highly active, due in part to major advances in methods for studying uncultivable organisms, such as molecular biological techniques (e.g., the 'omics') and imaging methods that combine information about identity and function at the single-cell level. These and other new approaches are providing novel and unexpected insights into mutualistic associations between animals and their microbiota. There is an unusually young and enthusiastic demographic for this field that has been strengthened by the attraction of established investigators from areas like immunology, behavior and developmental biology. A vital factor helping to drive the impact of microbiome research is a recurring, high-quality conference combining the best of both mammalian and non-mammalian model systems, with an eye to applying the newest technological advances in bioinformatics, sequencing, mathematical modeling and imaging approaches to understanding the mechanisms underlying them. Such a conference, while focusing on animal-microbe symbioses, should also including allied fields like plant symbioses and pathogenic microbiology whose different viewpoints can inspire novel ideas. The 2017 GRC/GRS are designed to develop new interactions that will drive this kind of intellectual synthesis. These two meetings play the critical role of enhancing and assuring the participation and visibility of both early career and senior scientists by showcasing short oral presentations along with lectures by invited speakers. This is an exciting time to be part of such a biological adventure, and the perfect opportunity for the GRC/GRS in Animal-Microbe Symbioses to have a significant impact.