Conference: Broadening Participation and Supporting Early-Career Scientists at the International Polyploidy Conference, May 9-12, 2023 in Palm Coast (FL)

多倍体(全基因组复制，WGD)，即拥有三组或更多完整的染色体，是大多数真核生物基因组的特征。WGD是遗传学、进化论、生态学以及农业和医学研究的中心。几乎所有的农作物都是多倍体的，许多人体器官(如肝脏、心脏和胎盘)也是多倍体的，至少三分之一的癌症是由WGD引起的。尽管WGD很重要，但我们对这一至关重要的物种形成机制和基因组和表型进化的原材料来源的了解是有限的和脱节的。题为“生命之树上的多倍体”的国际多倍体会议将于2023年5月9日至12日(佛罗里达州棕榈海岸)举行，聚集了不同领域的研究人员--细胞生物学、生理学、进化论、生态学、基因组学、农业和癌症--讨论和确定生物多样性、生物组织水平和研究领域中共享的多倍体细胞过程所产生的共性。NSF的资金将用于帮助支持职业早期研究人员参加会议并参与各种网络和培训机会。跨生命树多倍体会议的一个中心目标是帮助揭示WGD在生命树谱系和不同生物组织水平上的共性和独特作用，即基因调节、细胞功能、器官形成、组织性能、生态反应和景观水平的物种分布。这次会议将促进对话和互动，有望导致对多倍体的新的、综合的理解，并为从生物多样性和生物复杂性到医药和农业的翻译创新提供基础。到目前为止，还没有一个会议明确讨论生命的建立、进化、压力、发育和疾病，或者被认为是主要生命支系的多倍体。支持早期职业研究人员在会议上参与和培训探索不同生物体中的这些主题，有望刺激新一代科学家在多倍体研究方面的新方向。此外，NSF资金的使用将有助于支持在多个轴线上最大化多样性的努力：科学学科、视角、国家、地理、性别、种族、民族、机构和职业阶段。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Polyploidy (whole-genome duplication; WGD), the possession of three or more complete sets of chromosomes, characterizes the genomes of most eukaryotes. WGD is central to the study of genetics, evolution, ecology, as well as agriculture and medicine. Nearly all agricultural crops are polyploid, as are many human organs (e.g., the liver, heart, and placenta), and at least one third of all cancers arise from WGD. Despite the importance of WGD, our understanding of this critically important speciation mechanism and source of raw material for genomic and phenotypic evolution is both limited and disjointed. The International Polyploidy Conference entitled “Polyploidy Across the Tree of Life”, to be held May 9-12, 2023 (Palm Coast, FL) brings together researchers across diverse fields—cell biology, physiology, evolution, ecology, genomics, agriculture, and cancer—to discuss and identify commonalities that derive from shared polyploid cellular processes across organismal diversity, levels of biological organization, and fields of inquiry. NSF funds will be used to help support early-career researchers to attend the conference and participate in various networking and training opportunities. A central goal of the Polyploidy Across the Tree of Life Conference is to help uncover both the commonalities and distinct roles of WGD across lineages of the Tree of Life and at diverse levels of biological organization, i.e., gene regulation, cell function, organ formation, organismal performance, ecological responses, and landscape-level species distribution. This conference, with representation across currently siloed research fields of WGD, will promote dialogue and interactions that will hopefully lead to new, synthetic understanding of polyploidy and provide a foundation for translational innovations – from biodiversity and biocomplexity to medicine and agriculture. To date, no single conference has explicitly addressed establishment, evolution, stress, development, and disease or considered polyploidy across major clades of life. Supporting the participation and training of early career investigators in the exploration of these topics in diverse organisms at the conference will hopefully stimulate new directions in polyploidy research by a new generation of scientists. In addition, the use of NSF funds will help support efforts to maximize diversity across multiple axes: scientific discipline, perspective, country, geography, gender, race, ethnicity, institution, and career stage.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.