Science Researcher Update: Spotlight on Meetings, Conferences, and Events

 

Symposium -  Keystone, CO, United States

 

RNA silencing, and associated small RNA, were first discovered in plants and have widespread biological roles, including defense against viruses and transposons, as well as epigenetic control of chromatin modifications. However, the impact of small RNA on these biological processes from one generation to the next, their roles in responses to biotic and abiotic stresses, and their importance in evolution, are largely unknown. Furthermore, new roles for small RNA are emerging in germ cell fate, chromosome organization and DNA recombination and repair, as well as in transgene silencing. This conference will bring together leaders in the field of RNA silencing from around the world with the specific goal of exploring these emerging new functions, and relating them to what is known about existing mechanisms. Examples include transgenerational inheritance via post-transcriptional and transcriptional silencing, and the role of small RNA pathways in meiotic specification, asexual reproduction and DNA repair. Participants will explore their implications for real-world problems in plant biotechnology, plant breeding, genetic modification and plant defense for solutions in sustainable agriculture and bioenergy. Furthermore, the explosion of interest in small RNA pathways in animals means that many of these fundamental mechanisms have major implications in human health, and parallels between some of these mechanisms will also be explored.

 

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