Conference: 39th MU Interdisciplinary Plant Group (IPG) Annual Symposium

病原体、虫害以及洪涝、长期干旱、热浪等不同的逆境，给全球农业生产造成重大损失，威胁全球粮食安全。这些压力的频率和强度令人担忧地增加，这是全球变暖和气候变化的结果，突显了研究如何使植物对压力更具弹性的重要性。在这些研究的基础上，可以开发出许多不同作物和树木的新品种，提高对不同胁迫的耐受性。这些措施将减少与不同病原体相关的年度损害，减少干旱、洪水或热浪等压力，防止价值数十亿美元的农业损失，并在不断变化的气候下加强粮食安全。除了增加植物对非生物胁迫反应的知识库外，必须对新一代研究人员进行跨学科研究方法的培训，因为缓解气候变化的新技术很可能来自跨学科研究。目前的拨款将用于支持一次跨学科会议，该会议的重点是如何让植物更耐受压力。计划中的研讨会将为学生、博士后研究员和早期职业科学家提供更多的学习和网络机会，并使他们接触跨学科研究。此外，通过在学生职业生涯早期灌输跨学科合作的优点，会议将把好处扩大到社会，因为应对重大社会挑战所需的心态和方法将被传授给下一代科学家。活性氧物种及其引起的细胞还原-氧化(Redox)状态的变化，是激活植物适应和防御机制所需的关键信号分子。剖析和了解活性氧如何协调植物对胁迫的反应，将对科学界提高植物对胁迫的耐受性和缓解当前和即将到来的一些严峻环境挑战的整体努力做出重大贡献。因此，第39届密苏里大学跨学科植物小组年度研讨会围绕着植物胁迫和发育的氧化还原调节(2023年5月23-26日)的主题展开。这次研讨会将汇聚不同学科交叉领域的专家，教育科学界有关活性氧物种和氧化还原信号以及与它们密切相关的许多不同过程的知识。专题讨论会还将扩大代表不足群体的参与。例如，它包括一个不同的演讲者群体，这样来自不同背景的学生就可以看到自己的代表。在18名确认的发言者中，8名是女性，5名是非白人族裔。此外，受邀演讲的还有早期职业科学家：4名助理教授级别的和1名博士后，其中3名是女性，2名是非裔美国人。这将为妇女和未被充分代表的少数群体提供一个平台，通过在一个世界知名的会议上展示她们的工作，许多杰出的科学家出席了会议，其中两人是国家科学院的成员。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Pathogens, insects, and different stresses such as flooding, prolonged droughts, and heat waves, inflict heavy losses to agricultural production worldwide and threaten global food security. The alarming increase in the frequency and intensity of these stresses, an outcome of global warming and climate change, highlights the importance of studying how plants can be made more resilient to stress. Based on these studies, new varieties of many different crops and trees can be developed with increased tolerance to different stresses. These would decrease annual damages associated with different pathogens, and stresses such as drought, flooding, or heat waves, preventing billions of dollars’ worth in damages to agriculture, and increasing food security under a changing climate. In addition to increasing the knowledge base of plant responses to abiotic stress, training of a new generation of researchers in interdisciplinary research methods is a must, as novel technologies that mitigate climate change would most likely come from interdisciplinary research. The current grant will support an interdisciplinary conference that focuses on how to make plants more tolerant to stress. The planned symposium will enhance the learning and networking opportunities afforded to students, postdoctoral fellows, and early career scientists and expose them to interdisciplinary research. Furthermore, by instilling the virtues of interdisciplinary collaboration early in students’ careers the conference will extend the benefits to society because the mindset and approaches needed to tackle big societal challenges will be taught to the next generation of scientists.Reactive oxygen species, and the changes they cause in the reduction–oxidation (redox) state of cells, are key signaling molecules required for the activation of plant acclimation and defense mechanisms. Dissecting and understanding how reactive oxygen species orchestrate plant responses to stress will significantly contribute to the overall efforts of the scientific community to improve plant tolerance to stress and mitigate some of the current and upcoming harsh environmental challenges. The 39th University of Missouri Interdisciplinary Plant Group’s Annual Symposium was therefore developed around the theme of Redox Regulation of Plant Stress and Development (May 23-26, 2023). This symposium will bring together experts at the intersections of different disciplines to educate the scientific community about reactive oxygen species and redox signaling and the many different processes tightly linked to them. The symposium will also broaden participation of underrepresented groups. It includes, for example, a diverse group of speakers, so that students from diverse backgrounds could see themselves represented. Of the 18 confirmed speakers, 8 are women, and 5 are of non-white ethnicity. Furthermore, early career scientists are included as invited speakers: 4 assistant professor-level and 1 postdoc, of which 3 are women and 2 are African American. This will provide a platform for women and underrepresented minorities to advance their careers by providing visibility of their work at a world-renowned meeting, attended by numerous distinguished scientists, two of whom are members of the National Academy of Sciences.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.