Workshop: EMBO Workshop on Plant DNA Repair and Recombination to be held in Presqu'ile de Giens, France May 31, - June 3, 2007

首届致力于植物DNA修复和重组的国际研讨会将于2007年5月31日至6月3日在法国的Presque " ile de Giens举行。无论是在美国还是在世界范围内，研究这些问题的研究团体以前从未聚集在一个专门讨论这些植物主题的会议上。这次会议是由主要研究人员和联合主要研究人员共同组织的，包括法国帕斯卡尔大学的查尔斯·怀特、以色列魏茨曼研究所的阿维·利维、德国卡尔斯鲁厄大学的霍尔格·普切塔和瑞士弗里德里希·米歇尔研究所的芭芭拉·霍恩。从遗传学的早期开始，植物界就为DNA重组和修复的研究提供了极好的模型。这主要是由于它们的染色体大，易于评分，形态遗传标记的可用性以及对雄性不育突变体的简单筛选。近年来，世界范围内对植物DNA重组和修复的分子调控的认识有了很大的进展。这些进步的发生要归功于全植物基因组序列和功能基因组学工具的可用性，如微阵列和全基因组突变体收集。这些工具可以将植物的DNA重组和修复机制与其他物种的DNA重组和修复机制进行比较，这些物种通常是该领域的范例，例如出芽酵母。此外，植物是表观遗传研究的前沿，在确定基因组的遗传和表观遗传维持之间的联系方面有一个特别的兴趣。此外，植物群落对重组和修复的几个实际方面特别感兴趣。其中包括减数分裂重组在植物育种中的作用，以及在物种之间转移有用基因的需要（例如，为了抵抗生物或非生物胁迫）。在分子水平上，也有强烈的动机通过同源或特定位点重组来更好地控制植物中的DNA整合，以便有更好的研究工具以及开发新一代转基因植物产品，这些产品将更精确地进行工程设计，从而更容易调节，更容易为公众所接受。近5年来，植物重组和DNA修复领域的研究得到了长足的发展，国际合作研究迅速增加，植物改良的精确技术（如基因靶向）亟待改进。本次会议将强调国际合作、产学研合作以及基础研究对应用问题的应用。该奖项提供资金帮助美国研究生和博士后参加这个重要的会议。

The first international workshop devoted to plant DNA repair and recombination will be held in Presque''ile de Giens, France, May 31-June 3, 2007. The research community addressing these issues has never before gathered at a meeting dedicated to these topics in plants, either within the U. S. or worldwide. The meeting is being co-organized by the principal and co- principal investigators, together with Charles White of Universite Blaise Pascal in France, Avi Levy of the Weizmann Institute in Israel, Holger Puchta of Karlsruhe University in Germany, and Barbara Hohn of the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Switzerland. The plant kingdom has provided excellent models for the study of DNA recombination and repair since the early days of genetics. This is due primarily to their large chromosomes, to the availability of easily scorable, morphological genetic markers and to simple screens for male sterile mutants. In recent years, there has been great progress worldwide in the understanding of the molecular control of DNA recombination and repair in plants. These advances have happened thanks to the availability of whole plant genome sequences and functional genomics tools such as microarrays and genomewide collections of mutants. These tools allow the comparison of DNA recombination and repair mechanisms in plants with those of other species that often serve as paradigms in this field, such as budding yeast. Moreover, plants are at the forefront of epigenetic research and there is a special interest in determining the link between genetic and epigenetic maintenance of the genome. In addition, there are several practical aspects of recombination and repair that are of special interest to the plant community. These include the role of meiotic recombination in plant breeding and the need to transfer useful genes between species (e.g. for resistance to biotic or abiotic stress). At the molecular level there is also a strong motivation to better control DNA integration in plants via homologous or site-specific recombination in order to have better tools for research as well as for the development of a new generation of genetically modified plant products that would be more precisely engineered and thus easier to regulate and more acceptable to the public. The plant recombination and DNA repair community has expanded considerably over the past five years, international cooperative research in the area is increasing rapidly, and there is a strong need for improving precise technologies for plant improvement (e.g. gene targeting). This meeting will emphasize international cooperation, industry/academic collaboration, and the application of basic research to applied problems. This award provides funding to help U.S. graduate students and postdoctoral fellows participate in this important conference.