Workshop on a Plant Science Synthesis Center to be held on October 17-18, 2005 in Arlington, Virginia.

植物科学的最新进展为研究和教育开发了广泛的新工具和资源。这些包括基因组规模信息（如全基因组序列、高分辨率遗传和物理图谱等）、广泛的表型数据集（表达谱、蛋白质组学和代谢数据集等）、遗传资源（突变、重组近交和转基因集合等）、功能基因组学资产（包括突变基因表达集合、高通量删除和RNAi集合、蛋白质相互作用调查等）和信息资源（软件工具、算法、数据库、网站等）。虽然这些资源中的每一种都是非常有用的，但它们的最高价值可能在于它们的组合使用以及创造资源的群体之外的人的使用。前者需要创造性的综合-以创新的方式将这些不同资源中代表的信息结合起来，以更好地理解植物生物学的基本原理。后者要求来自其他领域和学科的个人能够以新颖的方式发现、理解和有效利用这些资源。这种创新的综合方法并不是“现成的”，而是提出了一个重大的新挑战，只有植物研究人员/教育工作者、信息科学家和其他人共同努力才能应对。该研讨会汇集了相关社区的成员，以考虑植物科学综合中心的发展是否可以为迎接这一挑战提供有效的手段。研讨会参与者正在解决的问题包括：是否需要一个植物科学综合中心？ 这样一个中心的使命和目标是什么？ 一个中心可以使用什么机制来响应社区的需求， 通过新的综合和创新促进进步？描述讨论结果的讲习班摘要报告将张贴在拟南芥信息资源网站（http：//www.arabidopsis.org/）上。这次研讨会的广泛影响是巨大的。其核心目标是确定未满足的需求和机会，以促进植物研究和教育，信息和计算机科学的所有领域的进步，并使跨学科研究能够吸引来自所有环境和观点的个人，包括直接领域以外的人，包括工程师，数学家，化学家等。

Recent progress in plant science has resulted in the development of a wide range of new tools and resources for research and education. These include genome scale information (such as whole genome sequences, high resolution genetic and physical maps, etc), extensive phenotypic data sets (expression profiling, proteomics, and metabolic data sets, etc) genetic resources (mutation, recombinant inbred, and transgenic collections, etc.), functional genomics assets (including reporter-gene expression collections, high throughput deletion and RNAi sets, protein interaction surveys, etc.) and informatics resources (software tools, algorithms, databases, web sites, etc.). While each of these resources is quite useful individually, their highest value may lie in their use in combination and by those outside the groups that created the resource. The former requires creative synthesis - combining the information represented among these distinct resources in innovative ways to achieve a better understanding of fundamental principles in plant biology. The latter requires that individuals from other fields and disciplines be able to find, understand and effectively employ these resources in novel ways. Such innovative, synthetic approaches do not come 'off-the-shelf' and, instead, present a significant new challenge that can only be met by plant researchers/educators, information scientists, and others working together. This workshop brings together members of the relevant communities to consider whether the development of a plant science synthesis center could provide an effective means for meeting this challenge. Questions that workshop participants are addressing include the following:Is there a need for a plant science synthesis center? What would be the mission and goals of such a center? What mechanisms could a center use to respond to community needs and to promote progress through new synthesis and innovation?The summary report of the workshop, describing the outcomes of the discussions, will be posted on the Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) web site (http://www.arabidopsis.org/). The broader impacts of this workshop are substantial. The central goals are the identification of unmet needs and opportunities for progress across all areas of plant research and education, information and computer sciences, and enabling interdisciplinary research that engages individuals from all settings and perspectives and includes those outside the immediate field, including engineers, mathematicians, chemists, and others.