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Participants at the Arabidopsis Genome Conference at Cold Spring Harbor Lab (Dec. 7-10, 2000) celebrated the imminent publication of the complete sequence of the Arabidopsis genome, due for release in the journal Nature the following week (Arabidopsis Genome Initiative, 2000). This marks a milestone for plant biology that promises to radically change not only the way in which many aspects of plant biology are studied, but also some of our fundamental views about plant-and eukaryotic-development and evolution. Conference organizers Rob Martienssen (Cold Spring Harbor Lab, NY) and Mike Bevan (John Innes Center, Norwich, UK) brought together many of the leading scientists involved in the Arabidopsis Genome Initiative sequencing and ongoing annotation efforts, and many others involved in making use of the genome sequence for functional and comparative genomics studies. Special mention was made honoring the contributions to plant genetics and the genome project of DeLill Nasser, an ardent supporter of plant genetics research and program director for Genetics (1978 to present) and the Arabidopsis Genome Project (1995 to present) at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Nasser, who was unable to attend the meeting due to illness, was honored with a special Plant Genetics Award, presented by Ron Davis (Stanford University, CA) on behalf of the plant science community, in deep gratitude for the friendship and inspiration she has given to plant geneticists for many years.
THE FAR-REACHING VALUE OF THE ARABIDOPSIS GENOME
The genomics era is now in full swing, and it was clear from numerous presentations at the conference that the Arabidopsis genome sequence has already made significant contributions to our understanding of plant biology, and indeed eukaryotic biology, particularly in the areas of evolutionary biology and molecular biology. The far-reaching value of the Arabidopsis genome was underscored in particular in the first and last talks of the conference, given by Plenary Speaker Michael Ashburner (EMBL-EBI Welcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK) and Steve Tanksley (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY), respectively.
Ashburner, famous for his model of hormonal regulation of gene activity in flies, described problems with annotation of the Drosophila genome, and the efforts to produce a dynamic, controlled vocabulary for annotating genes with respect to function by the Gene Ontology Consortium (GO). The goal of GO, which is made up of participants of...