Ecological Genomics: The Genetic Basis of Plant Adaptation

The Plant Biology Graduate Program at University of Massachusetts Amherst held its sixth annual Symposium in Plant Biology on Saturday, October 18th. The symposium is an initiative of the graduate program that is designed to highlight an exciting area of plant biology by featuring a daylong program of speakers, along with a poster session featuring contributions from attendees.

A set of six speakers gave excellent talks about their research for an audience of over 100 faculty, graduate students, postdocs and undergrads from through out the Northeast. The poster session featured 38 posters from 15 different institutions. Sinauer Associates provided materials for the ever-popular book raffle and we thank them for their generous contribution.

We would also like to thank this year's PB symposium coordinators - Ana Caicedo and Lynn Adler for putting together such a fantastic slate of speakers.

For information on our past symposiums, click here.

2008 SYMPOSIUM PRESENTERS:

EDWARD BUCKLER
USDA-ARS Research Geneticist and
Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics
Cornell University
"Complex Trait Genetics in Diverse Maize"

SCOTT HODGES
Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology
University of California, Santa Barbara
"Speciation and adaptation in Aquilegia: from field to genomic studies."

THOMAS MITCHELL-OLDS
Department of Biology,
Duke University
"Nucleotide polymorphisms and their ecological consequences in natural plant populations"

ROBERT THORNBURG
Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology
Iowa State University
"Molecules of nectar: The food of the gods and the pilfering pollinators"

CYNTHIA WEINIG
Department of Botany & Program in Ecology
University of Wyoming
"Quantitative variation in circadian rhythms and plant adaptation to heterogeneous environments"

STEPHEN WRIGHT
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Toronto
"Population genomics of plant adaptation in Arabidopsis and Capsella"

Click here for an 11" x 17" pdf poster for the 2008 event.

We hope to see you next October for the 2009 PB symposium!