Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom - TAIR

Thursday 2 nd July
16:30 - 18:00
1 Stomata - the ins and outs Tinto
Workshop Organisers – Julie Gray and Dominique Bergmann
Stomata are crucial for the regulated exchange of gases between the plant and atmosphere. As stomata
are gated by guard cells, a specialised cell type that is particularly responsive to environmental signals,
they provide a convenient system for the study of both plant cell differentiation and the transduction of
environmental signals. Stomatal biology is now at a critical juncture where there is interest from
researchers in a variety of disciplines and the basic elements of stomatal development and signalling
have been laid out. What has yet to be fully realized is how an integrated picture of stomata (from
molecules to cells to leaves to ecosystems) might be built from combining recent technical and
intellectual advances generated from different subdisciplines. Our aim in this workshop is to highlight
recent progress, to identify areas for future research and to discuss tools that may be broadly applicable
across fields of stomatal research. Short presentations from both new and established investigators in
the stomatal development and signalling fields will be followed by equal time for discussion. Additional
workshop participants will be encouraged to present tools or reagents generated in their studies and to
help identify areas in which such tools are needed.
Programme
16:30 - 17:20 Maik Bohmer (UC San Diego) P289
Proteomic analyses of protein modifications
Alex Webb (University of Cambridge)
Enhancer trap screens
Keiko Torii (University of Washington) P095
Microarray studies
Lee Hunt (University of Sheffield) P114
Signalling peptides
Discussion about resources and tools
17:20 - 17:50 Derek White (Agresearch New Zealand) P022
Challenges of integrating development and environment
Sally Assmann (Pennsylvania State University)
Systems biology
Sarah Robinson (John Innes Centre)
Modelling development
17:50 - 18:00 Discussion about challenges and future directions
2 Putting TAIR to work for you: hands-on workshop for beginning and advanced users Moorfoot
Workshop Organisers – Eva Huala and Kate Dreher
Stomata are crucial for the regulated exchange of gases between the plant and this two-part workshop
will teach effective search strategies and highlight important data sets available at TAIR. Both beginning
and experienced users will learn new ways to get the information they need and discover new tools and
data that can enhance their own research efforts.
In the first part curators will demonstrate how to get detailed information (e.g. sequence and map
information, phenotype data, functional annotations, AraCyc metabolic pathway information, etc.) about
specific genes and will show users several ways to retrieve bulk data for groups of genes. In the second
part of the workshop audience members will have the chance to practice the skills they have learned
using a set of prepared exercises or to ask curators for one-on-one help with particular tasks. Participants
should bring a laptop computer if possible. For those without computers a couple of extras will be
provided and people will be asked to share if needed. In addition, all attendees will get hand-outs and
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