Meeting: 5th Pan American Plant Membrane Biology Workshop June 1-5, 2015; San Pedro de Aracama, Chile

当人们进食时，他们摄入的有机体为他们提供卡路里、氨基酸和必要的矿物质离子，使他们的身体继续正常运作。人们主要是通过直接食用植物或通过食用动物来做到这一点，这些动物吃了积累了这些基本生物分子的植物。但植物如何从土壤中挖掘出通常以极其有限的浓度存在的基本矿物质离子呢？这是因为植物进化出了特定的膜蛋白，可以有效地识别并选择性地将这些矿物质离子从细胞外环境转移到细胞内。对这些过程的理解，以及对植物细胞内这种具有重要生物意义的矿物质离子的选择性浓缩所涉及的蛋白质的理解正在发生革命性的变化，这既基于最近使用基于基因组的方法识别参与这些浓缩过程的潜在蛋白质的能力，也基于最近对与这些生物过程的适当调节相关的复杂的膜分离事件的理解。该讲习班旨在支持两个以前截然不同的生物学研究领域之间的相互作用和知识转让，这两个领域是对植物细胞膜间蛋白质分选的研究，以及膜蛋白选择性地跨生物膜运输必需离子(和其他小分子)的机制的研究。预计这项建议所支持的科学相互作用将促进取得的进展，这些进展将被证明是重要的，以扩大对植物如何能够选择性地积累具有生物重要性的矿物离子和小分子的理解。这项申请是为了部分支持将于2015年6月1日至5日在智利圣佩德罗德阿塔卡马举行的第五届泛美膜生物学研讨会。这次拟举办的研讨会将集中讨论在理解植物膜生物学的基础和应用方面取得的最重要的突破。这次会议将主要集中在运输、信号和贩运问题上，因为这些调查领域正在以极快的速度扩大。鉴于膜生物学的重要性及其继续作出具有广泛基础重要性的开创性发现的潜力，以及对交流和互动机会的巨大科学需求，本次会议的主题既令人兴奋又及时。具体目标是(1)组织和支持一次关于植物膜生物学研究领域最新科学进展的会议(2)促进科学家和学员之间的互动，分享与正常生长、发育和营养有关的膜生物学领域的新发现，并加强培训和新的合作，以推动该领域的发展，以及(3)让新独立的科学家和学员直接参加会议，包括研究生和博士后研究员、妇女、少数群体和残疾人。会议的更广泛影响包括通过口头和海报演示提供接触尖端科学的机会，为受训人员和知名研究人员之间的互动提供机会，并鼓励和支持在这一重要研究领域取得长期和重大进展。

When people eat, they consume organisms that provide them with calories, amino acids, and essential mineral ions required for their bodies to continue to function normally. People do this primarily by either consuming plants directly or by consuming animals that have eaten plants that have accumulated these essential biological molecules. But how do plants mine the soil for essential mineral ions that often are present in extremely limiting concentrations? This occurs because plants have evolved specific membrane proteins that can efficiently recognize and selectively transport these mineral ions from the extracellular environment into the cell. The understanding of these processes, and the proteins involved in this selective enrichment of biologically important mineral ions within plant cells, is undergoing a revolutionary change, based on both the recent ability to identify potential proteins involved in these enrichment processes using genome-based methods, and the recent understanding of the complex membrane sorting events associated with the appropriate regulation of these biological processes. This workshop is aimed at supporting interaction and transfer of knowledge between two previously distinct biological research areas, the study of the sorting of proteins between membranes in plant cells, and the study of the mechanisms by which membrane proteins selectively transport essential ions (and other small molecules) across biological membranes. It is anticipated that the scientific interactions supported by this proposal will facilitate advances that will prove important to expanding the understanding how plants are able to selectively accumulate biologically important mineral ions and small molecules.This application is for partial support of the 5th Pan American Membrane Biology Workshop to be held in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile June 1-5, 2015. This proposed workshop will focus on topics covering the most important breakthroughs in understanding both basic and applied aspects of plant membrane biology. This meeting will largely focus on transport, signaling and trafficking, as these fields of investigation are expanding at an extremely rapid pace. Given the importance of membrane biology and its potential to continue to make groundbreaking discoveries of broad fundamental importance and the large scientific demand for opportunities to communicate and interact, the topic of this meeting is both exciting and timely. The specific objectives are to (1) organize and support a meeting on the latest scientific advances in the research area of plant membrane biology (2) promote interactions between scientists and trainees to share new discoveries in the field of membrane biology as it relates to normal growth, development and nutrition and to enhance training and new collaborations that will move the field forward and (3) to directly involve newly independent scientists and trainees including graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, women, minorities and the disabled in the conference. The broader impacts of the conference include providing access to cutting edge science via oral and poster presentations, to allow opportunities for interactions between trainees and established investigators and to encourage and support long-term and significant advances in this important area of research.