For Immediate Release

Contact:
Brian Hyps bhyps@aspb.org / 301.251.0560 ext 114 / 240.354.5160 (c)
Katie Engen katie@aspb.org / 301.251.0560 ext 116

Illinois Researchers Presenting at ASPB Annual Meeting in Chicago, July 7-11, 2007

Leading scientists at research institutions in Chicago and across Illinois will be presenting research findings at the American Society of Plant Biologist's (ASPB) annual Plant Biology meeting in Chicago (July 7-11). ASPB's meeting will be held as a Joint Congress in conjunction with the annual meetings of the American Fern Society (AFS), the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT), and the Botanical Society of America (BSA).
This Joint Congress will include several hundred exhibits, scientific sessions and events. Attendees from all of these societies will participate in each others' events. Such cross-pollination of ideas and debate will inform and catalyze development across over 40 different plant science research areas.
Presenters include scientists from the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois and Southern Illinois University. Their findings will include information on improved plant genome measurement technologies, plant cell-to-cell signaling, and plant reproduction, physiology and metabolism.
Five important studies that will be presented at the meetings were conducted by University of Chicago researchers in conjunction with research partners from other national and international labs. Three of these Chicago-based studies focus on new and innovative plant genome technologies. The first study was managed by Justin Borevitz of University of Chicago's Ecology and Evolution Department. Borevitz and several colleagues created a presentation based on their paper entitled Detecting Circadian Clock Regulated Transcription using Genome Tilting Arrays. Their work will be presented by Sam Hazen on July 8th. Borevitz also will join Xu Zhang and Jake Byrnes, two more of his co-researchers who are also from Chicago, to present on July 8th their findings from their Survey of splicing variation and allele specific expression in natural accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana using SNP-tilting array. Rick Williams, also a University of Chicago Ecology and Evolution lab researcher, completed research with several local and nationally-based colleagues on another application using tilting arrays. Their paper which will be presented on July 8th is called Deletion and Duplication Detection in Arabidopsis using Tilting Arrays. Williams can be reached at rwilliams@uchicago.edu.
Cell-to-cell and long-distance plant signaling are the key topics of the work done by University of Chicago's Karen Deak and Jocelyn Malamy. This presentation slated for July 8th is based on their paper Long Distance Signals Regulate Lateral Root Emergence in Arabidopsis thaliana. Deak can be reached at kdeak@uchicago.edu.
Kiera von Bessar of the University of Chicago's Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology teamed with other pollen biology experts to prepare a presentation for July 9th on Arabidopsis reproduction. The Arabidopsis plant is well-represented in this group of studies because it is of particular interest and usefulness to plant scientists due to its quick growth and reproduction cycles and simple genome.

The University of Illinois also will post five research studies from various plant science labs at the Joint Congress. Two of these University of Illinois-based studies, are extensively described in separate news releases, Elevated CO2 in Atmosphere Weakens Defenses of Soybeans to Herbivores and Ilinois-based Study of Energy Crops Finds Miscanthus More Productive than Switchgrass. These news releases can be requested from Katie Engen at Katie@aspb.org.
A presentation from University of Illinois researchers is based on a paper about secondary metabolism co-authored by Sanjeewa G. Rupashinge and Mary A. Schuler. They will present their three-dimensional model of plant structures used for metabolism on July 10th. Mary Schuler can be reached at maryschu@uiuc.edu.
Zhang Guirong, Hongyun Wang, Alexander Ulanov, Vera Lozovaya and Yun Lin coordinated efforts in their University of Illinois Crop Sciences lab to research components of metabolism regulation in Arabidopsis. They will present on July 9th. Lin can be reached at yunlin@uiuc.edu.
Robert Coates of University of Illinois' Department of Chemistry joined Aldwin Anterola, Erin Shanle, Katayoun Mansouri, Scott Schuette, Romina Vidal-Russell and Karen Renzaglia all of Southern Illinois University's Department of Plant Biology to explore plant development and physiology. On July 10th this group will share their findings on the science behind using moss bryophytes to better understand plant evolution. Anterola can be reached at anterola@siu.edu.
Founded in 1924, ASPB (formerly known as the American Society of Plant Physiologists), is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. This professional society has a membership of approximately 5,000 plant scientists from the United States and more than 50 other nations. ASPB publishes two of the most widely cited plant science journals in the world, Plant Cell and Plant Physiology. Further information concerning ASPB including the abstracts for these Joint Congress presentations can be found on the website, www.aspb.org.

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