2015 CHLOROPLAST BIOTECHNOLOGY GORDON RESEARCH CONFERENCE

The 2015 Gordon Research Conference on Chloroplast Biotechnology will present cutting-edge research by scientists interested in experimental approaches to probe chloroplast structure and function and to exploit plastome engineering for biotechnological applications. The meeting will bring together a growing community of scientists combining fundamental studies on chloroplast molecular biology with applications in agriculture, industrial biotechnology and healthcare. Plastid engineering is routine in tobacco, tomato, potato, lettuce, cabbage and soybean, but thus far has not been successful in major monocot food crops. Technical advances needed to extend the technology to new crops will be addressed. Microalgae and photosynthetic bacteria that serve as model systems for applications in crops will also be covered at the meeting. Speakers will provide an update on all aspects of chloroplast gene expression, including transcription, mRNA processing, mRNA editing and degradation, mRNA translation, and protein processing, assembly and turnover. Nuclear-encoded, organelle-targeted RNA-binding proteins, the functions of which are largely unknown, will also be discussed. Organelle genome evolution and how natural diversity may guide the design of synthetic organelle genomes will be covered. Applications of plastid engineering to improve plant productivity and boost biofuel production, and the introduction of novel biosynthetic pathways through engineering of polycistronic operons will be addressed. Production of vaccines, industrial enzymes, and human therapeutic proteins in chloroplasts will be covered. Finally, synthetic biology approaches in prokaryotes with potential applications in crops, such as improving the efficiency of photosynthesis and moving nitrogen fixation from microbes into crop plants will be discussed.