UC Davis-Nature Conference: Harnessing the Plant Microbiome

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In recent years, advances in plant microbiome research have engaged a diverse global community of researchers. NSF funds will be used to support the participation of students and early career investigators in the UC Davis-Nature Conference: Harnessing the Plant Microbiome, to be held virtually on October 22-24, 2021. The conference will cover a wide range of topics, including cross-kingdom interactions, molecular signals and communication, plant microbial ecology, microbiome analytics, and biotechnology and agricultural management. Invited speakers will include leading international experts, providing an exceptional opportunity for conference participants to hear about advances and concepts at the cutting edge of this rapidly growing field of research. In addition, opportunities to network with industry representatives, some invited speakers, and journal editors provide added benefits for students, postdoctoral fellows, and early career researchers. It is expected that this conference will have a significant impact on agricultural biotechnology, and consequently on the ability to meet societal challenges such as food security and environmental sustainability in an era of increased need for crop productivity due to the pressures of population growth, economic development, and climate change. New methodological innovations have enabled major advances in understanding the complexity of plant microbiomes and their cross-kingdom interactions and establishing a basis for sustainable development of agroecosystems. Harnessing the plant microbiome towards these goals holds great promise to expedite solutions to the challenges facing humanity, such as food security, food safety, and environmental sustainability. UC Davis and Nature Conferences (https://conferences.nature.com/) have partnered to host the “Harnessing the Plant Microbiome” virtual conference which aims to foster interdisciplinary discussions and collaborations and public-private partnerships on the current and emerging themes in this exciting research area. Conference proceedings that include the final program agenda and presentation abstracts will be made publicly available through the conference website and will be associated with the Nature Conferences media outlet for a global reach.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.