Meeting: Biology of CAM Plants, April 9-13, 2018, Phoenix, Arizona

陆生植物的酸代谢（CAM）光合作用是陆生植物的主要碳富集机制之一，是陆生植物实现资源利用效率的主要手段。因此，CAM植物越来越被认为是世界上最重要的粮食、饲料、纤维和燃料作物之一，也是干旱地区生态系统功能的关键驱动因素。CAM光合作用也是复杂性状进化的一个突出例子，有超过60个独立的进化起源，发生在超过33个维管植物科中。开发CAM为人类企业的生产潜力，同时保护自然环境中的CAM植物，需要广泛的生物学学科的整合。为了促进这种整合，本次会议将汇集不同群体的科学家，讨论CAM性状和物种的进化，生态学，功能生物学，基因组学和工程。会议的结果将与正在进行的选择用于粮食作物和生物燃料的多肉CAM物种的性状的努力以及面对快速环境变化的高度威胁的干旱、半干旱或热带生态系统的保护和管理高度相关。会议的发现将转化为对公众、决策者、土地管理者和科学界的宣传和广泛传播。CAM光合作用自20世纪60年代被发现以来，一直是植物生物学研究的前沿课题。然而，一旦确定了CAM光合途径中碳流的生化细节，CAM研究的进一步进展取决于应用分子遗传学和系统发育学以及同位素方法来研究这些代谢适应。近年来，分子系统发育、高通量测序和同位素生理学的重大进展使CAM研究重新焕发活力，并为CAM进化、新型C3光合作用和CAM生物能源作物的开发以及非CAM作物中CAM途径的工程设计提供了重要的新举措。这些举措现在正在产生令人兴奋的结果，由于现代生物学学科的重叠性质，它们需要在一个论坛上展示，让来自各个研究领域的专家和学生能够考虑到它们的意义。这次会议旨在通过为广泛的植物生物学家提供面对面交流的论坛来加速这一势头。在这样做的过程中，会议将加快发现的步伐，促进协同作用，从而最大限度地发挥对商业应用和自然生态系统保护具有直接意义的高度新颖、变革性发现的潜力。

Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) photosynthesis is one of the principle carbon concentrating mechanisms in terrestrial plants, and is the major means by which land plants achieve superior levels of resource-use efficiency. As a result, CAM plants are increasingly being recognized as among the world's most important crops for food, fodder, fiber, and fuel, as well as being key drivers of ecosystem function in dry regions. CAM photosynthesis also stands out as an example of complex trait evolution, with over 60 independent evolutionary origins, and occurrence in more than 33 families of vascular plants. Exploiting the productive potential of CAM for human enterprise while protecting CAM plants in naturally occurring environments requires the integration of a broad range of biological disciplines. To promote this integration, this conference will bring together a diverse group of scientists to discuss the evolution, ecology, functional biology, genomics and engineering of CAM traits and species. The outcomes of the conference will be highly relevant for ongoing efforts to select traits in succulent CAM species used for food crops and biofuels, and for conservation and management of highly threatened arid, semi-arid, or tropical ecosystems in the face of rapid environmental change. Discoveries from the conference will be translated into outreach and broad dissemination to the public, policy makers, land managers, and the scientific community.CAM photosynthesis was a leading topic in plant biology research in the two decades after its discovery in the 1960s. However, once the biochemical details of carbon flow in CAM photosynthetic pathways had been established, further progress in CAM research was dependent on application of molecular-genetic and phylogenetic, and isotopic approaches to investigate these metabolic adaptations. In recent years, significant advances in molecular phylogenetics, high throughput sequencing, and isotopic physiology have reinvigorated CAM research and contributed to major new initiatives in CAM evolution, the development of novel C3 photosynthesis and CAM bioenergy crops, and the engineering of CAM pathways in non-CAM crop species for improved climate resiliency. These initiatives are now producing exciting results, and due to the overlapping nature of disciplines in the modern era of biology, they need to be presented in a forum where experts and students from across the research spectrum can consider their significance. This conference aims to accelerate this momentum by providing a forum for face-to-face interactions among a wide range of plant biologists. In doing so, the conference will accelerate the pace of discovery and promote synergistic interactions that will maximize the potential for highly novel, transformative discoveries with immediate significance towards commercial application and the conservation of natural ecosystems.