Fine tuning of plant signalling pathways

Roscoff (Brittany), France, June 4-8, 2008

Deadline for application: March 22, 2008

• Chairperson: Catherine BELLINI,
  Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC), Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology,
  Swedish University of Agronomical Sciences (SLU), 901 83 Umeå, Sweden
  Phone : +46 90 786 84 64 – Fax: +46 90 786 81 65
  E-maill : Catherine.Bellini@genfys.slu.se

• Vice-Chairperson: Nicholas HARBERD

  Sibthorpian Professor of Plant Science (elect), University of Oxford, Department of Plant Sciences, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3RB, United Kingdom
  Phone: +44 1865 275071– Fax:
  E-mail: nicholas.harberd@plants.ox.ac.uk

Plants sense and respond to environmental cues and endogenous signals to ensure optimal growth and development. Plant cells must integrate these myriad extrinsic and intrinsic signals via a network of transduction pathways that produce adaptive response outputs. Phytohormones and their signalling components occupy a central position within this transduction network, frequently acting in conjunction with other environmental and morphogenic signals, to co-ordinately regulate plant growth and development. Impressive strides have been made to dissect the molecular basis of signal cross talk in plants. Plants are sessile organisms and need to set up efficient regulatory mechanisms that allow reacting and adapting rapidly to any environment change. Several regulatory check points exist at the transcriptional, post-transcriptional and at the protein levels. In the last few years comprehensive progress have been made in the understanding how plants fine-tune different signalling pathways. For example the recent identification of the major plant hormones’s receptors gave more insights in how these simple organic molecules are perceived by the plant cells. In addition the identification of the SCF complexes and protein turnover as central to early auxin and GA signalling events suggests that the proteolysis of repressor proteins is an important hormone signal transduction mechanism in plants. Another important issue in the last three years was the discovery of microRNAs used for regulating mRNA accumulation. Indeed several developmental process and signalling pathways are regulated by miRNA-guided degradation of target mRNAs.

This conference will be the continuation of a series of Jacques Monod conferences devoted to the general theme of "Signal Transduction in Plants". It will focus on the different regulatory levels and the corresponding mechanisms involved in fine-tuning the various signalling pathways .

Invited speakers

(Provisional titles)

ASHIKARI Moto (Nagoya, Japan)
Plant growth signalling  

BELLINI Catherine ( Umeå, Sweden)
Auxin control of adventitious root formation in Arabidopsis

BENNETT Malcolm (Nottingham, UK)
Developing an integrated model for hormone regulated root growth

CHIOU Tzyy-Jen (Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China)
Signal sensing in phosphate homeostasis through microRNA

COLOT Vincent (Evry, France)
Chromatin as an orchestrator of signalling pathways: an epigenomics view in Arabidopsis

COUPLAND George (Cologne, Germany)
Light and circadian clock regulation of Arabidopsis flowering time

CRESPI Martin (Gif sur Yvette, France)
Non-protein coding RNAs in the fine-tuning of root developmental plasticity

ESTELLE Mark (Bloomington, USA)
Genetic and Biochemical Studies of Auxin Action Reveal a Novel Mechanism of Hormone Perception

GENSCHIK Pascal (Strasbourg, France)
Fine tuning of ethylene and GA signalling pathways by the UPS

GOODRICH Justin (Edinburgh, UK)
Novel developmental targets for Polycomb genes in plants"

HARBERD Nicholas (Oxford, UK)
To grow or not to grow

HELARIUTTA Ykä (Helsinki, Finland)
Integration of hormonal and genetic control during vascular morphogenesis

HILL Robert (Winnipeg, Canada)
ABA receptors and the proteins they interact with.

 KONCZ Csaba (Cologne, Germany)
Spliceosome activating complex and stress signalling.

LAGRANGE Thierry (Perpignan, France)
Role of RNA polymerase IV in RNA-directed DNA methylation in Arabidopsis thaliana

LEPINIEC Loïc (Versailles, France)
Transcriptional regulation of seed maturation in Arabidopsis

LEUNG Jeff (Gif sur Yvette, France)
Prediction of protein kinase targets by informatics: Application to abscisic acid signalling

 LEYSER Ottoline (York, UK)
MAX signalling and shoot branching in Arabidopsis

McCOURT Peter (Toronto, Canada)
Probing hormone signalling in Arabidopsis using chemical genetics

NILSSON Ove (Umeå, Sweden)
The conserved CO/FT regulon controls growth and development in the poplar tree

PAZ-ARES Javier (Madrid, Spain)
Specificity in Phosphate starvation signalling in plants

PRAT Salomé (Madrid, Spain)
DELLA repressor control of GA and light-regulated genes

RAMEAU Catherine (Versailles, France)
Function of the higher plants branching MAX/RMS pathway in the moss Physcomitrella patens

RECHENMANN Catherine (Gif sur Yvette, France)
What about the other auxin receptor, ABP1, and its role in the control of plant growth ?

RUBERTI Ida (Rome, Italy)
Regulatory networks involved in the shade avoidance response

SCHMID Markus (Tübingen, Germany)
Role of FT protein in floral induction

VAUCHERET Hervé (Versailles, France)
Small RNA pathways in plants: mechanisms and regulations

VOINNET Olivier (Strasbourg, France)
Title to be coming

ZHANG Da-Peng (Beijing, China)
How do plant cells relay abscisic acid signal in the abscisic acid receptor ABAR-mediated signalling pathway?

 

Deadline for application: March 22, 2008

Registration fee (including board and lodging)

• 330€ for PhD students
• 530€ for other participants

Application for registration

The total number of participants is limited to about 115 and all participants are expected to attend for the whole duration of the conference. Selection is made on the basis of the affinity of potential participants with the topics of the conference. Scientists and PhD Students interested in the meeting should send:

• their curriculum vitae
• the list of their main publications for the 3 last years
• the abstract of their presentation

to the Chairperson of the conference before the deadline. After it, the chairman will select the participants. Except in some particular cases approved by the chairperson, it is recommended that all selected participants present their work during the conference, either in poster form or by a brief in- session talk. The organizers choose the form in which the presentations are made. No payment will be sent with application. Information on how and when to pay will be mailed in due time to those selected.