[afgn] Workshops at ICAR organized by the community

[Luise Brand]

10 community-organized workshops for ICAR 2015 (Paris) are posted online at: 
http://www.arabidopsisconference2015.org/events.php?IDManif=839&IDModule=71&IDRub=1349

9 of them have space for short talks from submitted abstracts.

To have your abstract considered for inclusion in a workshop you must first be registered and you 
can email your abstract directly to the organizers (by no later than April 21.)

***The 10 accepted ICAR 2015 workshops are listed below***

(1) - Bioinformatics, Quantitative Techniques and Computational Skills: Current Research and Future 
Training Needs for 21st Century Plant Biology (Joanna Friesner and Siobhan Brady) Successful 
biologists of the 21st century will need to be comfortable with networks containing genes and their 
products as well as high-throughput, quantitative and dynamic modeling techniques. This workshop 
will feature presentations from early-career scientists that utilize quantitative or computational 
techniques and approaches. Presenters will also be asked to discuss what they see as the relevant 
quantitative, computational, and technological needs for their research program and for training 
successful plant biologists. The workshop will conclude with an interactive discussion regarding 
emerging technologies, research approaches, and training needs for 21st century plant biology. There 
is space for several short talks from abstracts that use these techniques in biological research or 
education.

(2) - Epigenomics (Doris Wagner and F. Roudier) The goal of this workshop is to promote epigenomic 
and epigenetic research in plants and in particular to highlight novel approaches, tools and 
resources in this field. This a joint endeavor by EPIC, a research coordination network (RCN) funded 
by the United States National Sciences Foundation (NSF) and the Multinational Arabidopsis Steering 
Committee subcommittee on plant epigenetics.

(3) - Novel Tools and Techniques - New frontiers in single cell and single molecule biology (Nick 
Provart and Luise Brand) One major goal is to foster the understanding of plant development from the 
single cell to the whole plant and to plant populations. The progress on these frontiers is 
tremendous due to novel tools and techniques developed in plant biology. Here we propose a workshop 
focusing on novel tools and techniques in the area of single cell applications and nanobiology. In 
this context Arabidopsis is an outstanding reference organism to develop and establish new in vitro 
techniques like nanosensors, genome editing, microscopy, and single molecule techniques.

(4) - Abiotic stress response, organized by the GDRI-IPN network France-Japan. The workshops will 
provide a platform for young scientists to showcase their work in the broad research area of plant 
perception and responses to abiotic stresses, with the aim of stimulating further discussion both 
during and after the ICAR conference.

(5)- Cell wall and signaling The cell wall contributes to plant architecture, protects cells 
mechanically and against biotic and abiotic challenges and is the main source of plant produced 
biomass. Cell walls are constantly reorganized allowing both changes in extension capabilities and 
integration of novel material. These changes are needed to face periods of growth, organ formation, 
differentiation, and responses to environmental constraints and thus require sensitive sensing and 
signaling mechanisms that lead to highly dynamic controls of cell wall synthesis and remodelling. 
Hormones are known key regulators required for many events during wich cell wall remodeling and 
synthesis occurs. But how hormone signal is translated into cell wall modification are perceived ans 
translated into developmental signals remain a central unresolved question in developmental biology. 
The purpose of this workshop is to bring together researchers from distinct fields and discuss 
recent results, their interpretation and! perspectives. It will be a rare opportunity to gather a 
diverse scientific community and stimulate interdisciplinary interactions and future international 
cooperation.

(6) - From Systems Biology to Synthetic Biology in plants The goal of this workshop is to discuss 
recent developments in both Systems and Synthetic Biology. To promote the use of these approaches to 
further plant research and biological engineering of gene networks in plants. This workshop will be 
the occasion to showcase the different advances in systems/synthetic biology. We plan to bring 
leading actors around the same table to discuss the latest advances in these research areas.

(7) - Ionomics: bringing systems analysis of plant mineral nutrition from Arabidopsis to crops 
Mineral nutrition plays a key role for plant growth and development and can be a major environmental 
constraint. Sustainable intensification became a major challenge for agriculture. It requires 
increasing productivity and improving product quality, in a sustainable way to grow plants on 
marginal lands, poor in mineral nutrients among which some metals (Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, Mg...), and 
sometimes contaminated at low levels by harmful trace elements (Cd, As). A major challenge will be 
to understand how the different sensing and signaling pathways activated in response to changes in 
nutrient availability are coordinately integrated. Mineral nutrition will have therefore to be 
considered as a system. It will require to develop tools enabling to model integrative gene networks 
that will take into account the availability of nutrients and their interactions. Undoubtedly 
Arabidopsis will continue to serve as model to develop concepts and tools in this field of reserach. 
Translating this! knowledge to crops will contribute to improve their yield, but also importantly 
the nutritional quality and safety of their derived products.

(8) - Challenges and questions in ambient temperature signaling and acclimation research The 
workshop aims at addressing and discussing three main questions: I) Which are the open questions in 
ambient temperature signaling? II) How can these challenges be addressed in a collaborative manner 
between the leading labs in ambient temperature signaling? III) How can we translate temperature 
research in Arabidopsis to relevant crop systems?

(9) - New approaches in plant signaling, organized by the GDRI-IPN network France Japan This 
workshop will highlight research aimed at the development and/or the application of novel approaches 
which allow new insights into plant signalling mechanisms at multiple scales.

(10) - The Arabidopsis information portal for users and developers Araport, Arabidopsis information 
portal (www.araport.org), is a large scale project funded by the US NSF ans UK BBSRC that provides a 
new on-line resource that aims to provide users with a single interface through which to access a 
wide range of Arabidopsis information - a "one-stop shop" - using state-of-the-art web technologies. 
(note: this workshop is not soliciting submitted abstracts for presentations)

Kind regards,
Luise Brand
-- 

Dr. Luise Brand
MASC Coordinator • www.arabidopsisresearch.org
AFGN Coordinator • www.dbg-afgn.de

University of Tübingen
Center for Plant Molecular Biology (ZMBP) • Plant Physiology
Auf der Morgenstelle 32 • 72076 Tübingen • Germany

Tel.: +49-(0)7071-29-78725 • Fax : +49-(0)7071-29-3287