Gordon Research Conference on Plant Molecular Biology: Spatial and Temporal Dynamics in Plant Biology, Holderness, New Hampshire, June 14-19, 2020

第28届戈登植物分子生物学研究会议将于2020年6月14日至19日在密歇根州霍尔德内斯举行，主题为“植物生物学中的时空动力学”。人类面临的挑战是，尽管耕地减少和环境退化，但仍要可持续地为全球90-100亿人口提供营养丰富的食物。植物不能移动，因此必须通过就地反应来应对不断变化和日益紧张的环境。这次会议的重点是植物对其环境的实时响应，但时间尺度不同。例如，光感知是快速的(发生在毫秒内)，但许多信号级联在几分钟到几小时内运行。生物生物钟以天为时间尺度运行，但对季节性感知也至关重要。进化的时间尺度从几年到几千年。植物的环境响应也发生在不同的空间尺度上，从亚细胞和细胞到整个器官和整个植物。此外，植物对环境的反应也受到相关微生物的影响，包括有益的和致病的相互作用。了解植物在时间和空间尺度上对其环境的反应的机理基础，是发展作物以更好地保持甚至提高其生产力的重要的第一步，以面对日益增加和变化的环境压力。这次会议的目标是在科学界和更广泛的公众中传播这些见解，以告知和提高农业实践及其欣赏。为了生存，植物必须实时适应不断变化的环境，但目前的研究通常只捕捉植物反应的(单个时间点)快照。这次会议将重点介绍在不同的时间和空间尺度上实时跟踪和分析植物动态响应的新方法和新途径--从光敏色素感知光的原子动力学，到表观遗传和转录动力学，到细胞生物学和发育过程的动力学，再到整个植物生理学和进化动力学。将考虑新的建模和统计方法，包括基于时间的研究，这些方法揭示了以前未知的基因-网络在各种水平上的相互作用，这些相互作用不能用更传统的方法来确定。会议规模较小，并强调讨论，这提供了一个独特的机会，可以发展一个社区，承认生命，特别是植物生命在时间和空间上的多个不同组织尺度的重要性。与植物物种和群落的进化不同，植物信号在不同的时间和空间尺度上起作用，但它们有适用的共性逻辑，它们的应用丰富和推进了我们在每个尺度上理解植物生物学的工作。虽然一个明确的目标是拓宽在GRC互动的科学家的思维，但同时的目标是通过招募具有新技能的新参与者来建立和扩大植物研究社区。这一目标与GRC上讨论的具体研究一样重要。该奖项由综合组织系统部门的植物基因组研究计划和植物、真菌和微生物发育机制计划以及分子和细胞生物科学部门的细胞动力学和功能集群共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The 28th Gordon Research Conference on Plant Molecular Biology, entitled “Spatial and Temporal Dynamics in Plant Biology,” is scheduled for June 14-19, 2020 in Holderness, NH. Humanity faces the challenge of providing a global population of 9-10 billion with nourishing food, sustainably, in spite of loss of arable land and environmental degradation. Plants cannot move and so must deal with a changing and increasingly stressful environment by responding in place. This conference focuses on plant responses to their environment in real time, but at different time scales. For example, light perception is rapid (occurs in milliseconds), but many signaling cascades operate over minutes to hours. The biological circadian clock operates on a time scale of days yet is also critical for seasonal perception. Evolutionary time scales extend over years to millennia. Plant environmental responses also occur at different spatial scales, from subcellular and cellular to whole organ and whole plant. Moreover, plant responses to the environment are also influenced by their associated microbes, which include both beneficial and pathogenic interactions. Understanding the mechanistic basis of plant responses to their environment across both temporal and spatial scales is an important first step towards developing crops better able to maintain or even increase their productivity in the face of increasing and changing environmental stresses. The goal of this conference is the dissemination of these insights both within the scientific community and to the greater public to inform and enhance agricultural practice and its appreciation.To survive, plants must adapt to an ever-changing environment in real-time, yet current studies typically capture only a (single time point) snapshot of plant responses. This conference will highlight new methods and approaches to track and analyze dynamic responses in plants in real time, at different temporal and spatial scales – from the atomic dynamics of light perception by phytochrome, through epigenetic and transcription dynamics, to dynamics of cell biological and developmental processes, to whole plant physiology and evolutionary dynamics. Novel modeling and statistical approaches will be considered, including time-based studies, that reveal previously unknown gene-network interactions at a variety of levels that could not be identified using more conventional means. The small scale of the meeting, and the emphasis on discussion offers a unique opportunity to develop a community that embraces the importance of recognizing the multiple distinct scales of organization, both temporal and spatial, at which life, specifically plant life, operates. Plant signaling operates at different temporal and spatial scales from the evolution of plant species and communities, yet there are commonalities of logic that apply, and their application enriches and advances our work to understand plant biology at each of these scales. While one explicit objective is to broaden the thinking of the scientists who interact at this GRC, a parallel objective is to build and broaden the plant research community through the recruitment of new participants with new skill sets. This objective is as important as the specific research discussed at the GRC. This award was co-funded by the Plant Genome Research Program and the Plant, Fungal and Microbial Developmental Mechanisms Program in the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems, and the Cellular Dynamics and Function Cluster in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.