2009 Medicago Truncatula Model Legume Congress to be held July 12-16, 2009 at the Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, CA

随着新的研究成果、新的工具和技术的迅速增加，即将完成的基因组，越来越多的实验室在各个方面工作，以及最近的Medicago下一代基因分型项目，一个特定的Medicago会议将使许多研究人员受益。将于2009年7月12日至16日在加利福尼亚州太平洋格罗夫的Asilomar会议场地举行的2009年紫花苜蓿模型豆科会议将为国际紫花苜蓿社区提供这样一个场所。科学会议将涵盖豆类生物学的最新进展，包括共生和其他植物-微生物相互作用，与豆类相关的植物发育，营养稳态和次级代谢，以及生态基因组学。交叉主题将包括基因组分析（特别是下一代技术，系统遗传学和比较基因组学），生态学和群体遗传学，自然和诱导变异，以及生物信息学和功能基因组学工具开发等主题。大会将强调跨领域主题和研究人员在所有职业阶段的参与，并将努力实现性别平衡。研究生、博士后和初级研究人员的参与将通过旅行奖励来促进。NSF提供的资金将用于扩大美国科学界和发展中国家青年科学家的参与。会议计划和摘要将在会议网站上公开发布，并通过将分发给与会者的摘要计划手册发布。

With the rapid increase in new research findings, new tools and techniques, the soon-to-be-finished genome, the increased number of laboratories that work in all aspects of Medicago truncatula biology, and recent projects on next-generation genotyping in Medicago, a Medicago-specific meeting would benefit many researchers. The 2009 Medicago truncatula Model Legume Congress, to be held July 12-16, 2009 at the Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, CA, will provide such a venue for the international Medicago community. Scientific sessions will cover recent advances in legume biology, including symbiosis and other plant-microbe interactions, plant development relevant to legumes, nutrient homeostasis and secondary metabolism, and ecological genomics. Cross cutting themes will include subjects such as genome analysis (especially next generation technologies, phylogenetics and comparative genomics), ecology and population genetics, natural and induced variation, as well as bioinformatics and functional genomics tool development. The Congress will emphasize cross cutting themes and participation of researchers at all career stages, and will strive for gender balance. The participation of graduate students, postdoctoral and beginning investigators will be fostered through travel awards to attend the Congress. Funding provided by NSF will be used to broaden participation of young scientists from the US scientific community and from developing countries. Conference program and abstracts will be publicly available online on the conference website and through a program book of abstracts that will be distributed to meeting attendees.