The ICAR2010 for development of Arabidopsis research beyond 2010

Abstract

In the past 20 years, Arabidopsis has been used worldwide as the most important model plant to analyze all essential plant functions. In 2000, the Arabidopsis genome sequence was determined with high reliability by the Arabidopsis Genome Initiative (AGI) groups (Arabidopsis Genome Initiative 2000). This Arabidopsis genome sequence has provided fundamental knowledge for plant scientists to analyze genomic information related to all essential functions. After the determination of the Arabidopsis genome sequence in 2000, the Arabidopsis 2010 project, an international cooperative effort, started analyzing all the coding and noncoding genes and their regulatory networks based on genomics and mutant resources. In the United States, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has supported this large project for 10 years, which has been quite successful in promoting not only Arabidopsis research but also plant and crop sciences (see http://www.arabidopsis.org/portals/ masc/projects.jsp). Similar functional genomics projects also started in Europe, Japan, and other parts of the world after 2000. In the international 2010 project, various genomic and mutant resources have been developed and deposited in resource centers. ABRC (http://www.biosci. ohio-state.edu/*plantbio/Facilities/abrc/abrchome.htm) and NASC (http://arabidopsis.info/) are major Arabidopsis resource centers established in 1991 in the United States and Europe, respectively. The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) is an important portal site for genome information, various databases, resources, and other useful information for Arabidopsis researchers (http://www. arabidopsis.org/). Most plant scientists will agree that the year 2000 was a turning point in the direction of plant research during these past 10 years. For that reason, 2010 is a year of commemoration and celebration for the success of the Arabidopsis 2010 project in the next stage of plant science and crop biotechnology. We are pleased to host the 21st International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR2010) at Yokohama, Japan, June 6–10, 2010 (http://arabidopsis2010.psc.riken. jp/index.html). The ICAR is the annual international conference on Arabidopsis thaliana, in which participants present and discuss their latest research results obtained mainly with Arabidopsis. Approximately 800 scientists are expected to participate in the ICAR2010. Because this is the final year of the 2010 project, there will be many excellent presentations and posters reporting the fruitful results of the project. An important message of the ICAR2010 is ‘‘2010 and beyond: Arabidopsis as basic knowledge for the understanding of whole plant functions and translational research to solve global problems.’’ The following points are noteworthy: