U.S.-Australia Seminar: New Frontiers in Cellular Interactions in Cnidarian/Dinoflagellate Symbioses

0605804 Weis该奖项支持美国研究人员，博士后和研究生参与美国-澳大利亚刺胞动物/甲藻共生体细胞相互作用新领域联合讲习班将在澳大利亚苍鹭岛举行。 共同组织者是俄勒冈州州立大学的Virginia Weis教授和澳大利亚布里斯班的昆士兰州大学的Ove Hoegh-Guldberg教授。 许多刺胞动物，包括珊瑚，与光合甲藻进行内共生。 这些关联具有全球意义，因为珊瑚构成了珊瑚礁生态系统的营养和结构基础。 珊瑚礁在全世界范围内都在减少，这在很大程度上是由于珊瑚白化现象，这是共生伙伴关系破裂的结果。 由于我们对合作动物/甲藻伙伴关系的基本细胞和分子事件缺乏了解，对漂白的细胞机制的了解受到阻碍。 迫切需要开展国际努力，使细胞生物学领域的研究人员和其他动物/微生物相互作用生物学家参与珊瑚/甲藻共生现象的研究，以便提供他们的专门知识和观点。 研讨会将把这些专家聚集在澳大利亚大堡礁的苍鹭岛研究站，这是世界上首屈一指的珊瑚研究设施之一。 美国和澳大利亚拥有世界上最多的珊瑚生物学家，他们研究共生关系。 讲习班将使他们能够开始一项国际倡议，旨在了解构成珊瑚基础的细胞和分子相互作用。 深入了解这些过程的性质最终可以帮助我们预测珊瑚是否有能力在气候变化中生存下来。 此外，增加研究相对不足的刺胞动物和甲藻细胞可能会揭示新的方面的细胞-细胞信号，协调基因调控，细胞周期控制，细胞形态发生和胞质分裂。 该研讨会将为美国博士后和研究生提供一个获得全球研究经验的绝佳机会，因为他们将参加实验室项目，实地考察和海报会议。 预计他们将在整个职业生涯中与外国研究人员保持联系和合作。 组织者将建立一个网站，提供有关讲习班及其成果的信息。 此外，他们还将向若干专业协会提交讲习班摘要，供在通讯中发表。

0605804WeisThis award supports the participation of American researchers, postdocs and graduate students in a U.S.- Australia joint workshop on new frontiers in cellular interactions in cnidarian/dinoflagellate symbioses to be held on Heron Island in Australia. The co-organizers are Professor Virginia Weis at Oregon State University and Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Many cnidarians, including corals, engage in an endosymbiosis with photosynthetic dinoflagellates. These associations are of global significance as corals form both the trophic and structural foundation of coral reef ecosystems. Coral reefs are in decline worldwide due in large part to the phenomenon of coral bleaching, which results from the breakdown of the symbiotic partnership. Insight into the cellular mechanisms responsible for bleaching has been hampered by our lack of understanding of the very basic cellular and molecular events underlying the cooperative animal/dinoflagellate partnership. There is an urgent need to launch an international effort to bring investigators into coral/dinoflagellate symbioses from the fields of cell biology and other animal/microbe interaction biologists in order to provide their expertise and perspective. The workshop will bring these experts together at Heron Island Research Station on Australia s Great Barrier Reef, one of the world s premiere coral research facilities. The United States and Australia together have the world s largest concentration of coral biologists who study the symbiosis. The workshop will enable them to begin an international initiative aimed at understanding the cellular and molecular inter-partner interactions that form the foundation of corals. Insight into the nature of these processes could ultimately help us predict whether corals have the capacity to survive climate change. In addition, the increased study of the relatively understudied cnidarian and dinoflagellate cells may well reveal novel aspects of cell-cell signaling, coordinated gene regulation, cell-cycle control, and cellular morphogenesis and cytokinesis. The workshop will provide the US postdocs and graduate students an excellent opportunity to receive a global research experience, as they will participate in lab projects, field excursions and a poster session. It is anticipated that they will maintain contacts and collaborations with the foreign researchers throughout their careers. The organizers will create a website that will provide information about the workshop and its findings. In addition they will submit workshop summaries to several professional societies for publication in newsletters.