Alun SaltTweets from the first two lectures at the International Botanical conference. Follow it at http://www.facebook.com/ibc2011 or on the web at http://ibc2011.com/
It looks like a lot of tweets for Thursday, so there’ll be a few posts today. Tim Entwisle has another IBC post up this morning about tweeting, talking about its value as conferences.
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Talking Plants: International Botanical Congress in Melbourne all a twitter
Half way through the International Botanical Congress in Melbourne it’s time to draw breath. The pace has been cracking, particularly with hands on Twitter, eyes on the speaker and mind on running the Congress. Some background first. The International Botanical Congress is held every six years and attracts botanists from around the world to discuss the latest developments in plant science.
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..and now this morning’s Plenary lectures. First is Prof. Peter Quail who is talking about Phytochrome photosensory signaling and transcriptional networks to a slightly depleted audience. For one reason or another.
| “ | Plenary ranks thin post-gala: suspect there may be a few botanical heads in buckets around town this AM. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Wondered why there were so many grans on my tram to #ibc18 this morning. "Craft & Quilt Expo" next door 🙂 | |||
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| “ | #ibc18 Day 4 plenary. Peter Quail: phytochrome phoyosensory signalling and transcrptional networks. | |||
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| “ | Hope someone who knows what phytochrome is gets here to tweet soon… #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Peter Quail – hero of phytochrome. But, @IBC11, its hard for him to tweet while talking. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | I’m here, but my knowledge of phytochrome is a few decades old. Looking forward to catching up! #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | when in doubt, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytochrome RT @IBC11: Hope someone who knows what phytochrome is gets here to tweet soon #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Quail: red light enhancing phosphorylation of PIF phyt int fctr serine residues: is it necessary for ubiquitylation –> degradation? #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Liking Peter Quail already, he started at the beginning. And that accent… #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Quail: yin-yang model of PIFs giving etiolation (skotomorphogenesis), phytochromes for photomorphogensis. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Or even yin-yang 🙂 RT @TimEntwisle: Quail: Skotomorphogenesis-photomorphogenesis like yin-gang [but not as catchy…] #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | skotomorphogenesis – now there’s a word you don’t hear every day. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Quail: PIFs also involved in cellular signalling hub, allowing plant to respond effectively to changes in its environment. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Quail: PIFs function as cellular signalling hub. (TIPs review – http://bit.ly/ogXbwP ) Me: complexity of networks with interactions! #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | But can we reduce network complexity and then model? We would like to test http://bit.ly/olHzod. with big plant networks #ibc18 | |||
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Then came the next plenary lecture.
| “ | Next up: Jonathan Wendel on evolution of polyploidy in cotton #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | #ibc18 Plenary. Johnathan Wendel: Genes, Jeans and genomes – exploring the mysteries of polyploidy in cotton. #jeenz #jeenoamz | |||
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| “ | Jonathan Wendel: Charles Darwin remains relevant 200 years after birth. His questions still important & we have new technologies. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Wendel:"Cotton’s history interlinked with slavery & white man invasion of new world" Quotes "Cotton, 1 of Egypt’s greatest treasures" #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Wendel: Australia 7th-largest cotton producing country in world. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Wendel: four major strains of domesticated cotton. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Jonathan Wendel at #ibc18 3 CLADES of wild cotton relatives in Australia. | |||
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| “ | Wendel: six weeks discovering new wild cotton spp. from helicopter in the Kimberley with Lyn Craven (CANB). http://j.mp/pM1STs #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Wendel at #ibc18: Evolutionary significance of rare events – multiple trans-oceanic dispersal of cotton species. | |||
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| “ | #ibc18. Wendel: so happy not to have to explain ‘anthesis’ and ‘trichome’ to the audience. #roomfullofbotanygeeks | |||
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| “ | Wendel: polyploidy "ubiquitous, episodic, recurring". Ref. to Jiao et al.: http://j.mp/oOzzlv #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Wendel: And polyploidy is a relative concept – i.e. all/most angiosperms have it to varying degrees. Gossypium, e.g., is 48-ploid. #ibc18 . | |||
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| “ | Wendel: tough life leaving Iowa in the winter to look for wild cotton in Hawaii. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Wendel makes great case of why knowing the whole genus of cotton then comparative analysis is so valuable for science, breeding. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Wendel: oulining the evolution of cotton species an ploidy events, an elegant well-documented historical geophylo reconstruction. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Wendel: Nice pic from "Earth from Above", by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. http://j.mp/r2gmQt to buy, or cotton image at http://j.mp/p9fGK0 #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Wendel at #ibc18: 3-5% of ESTs in genome-wide scan of cotton have experienced gene conversion of small tracts, not just for ribosomal loci | |||
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| “ | Wendel: genomic dominance in polyploids: shown in a few so far, but likely to be in most polyploids. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Wendel addresses question of asymmetrical gene expression from parents in allopolyploids – genomic dominance -12 possible patterns #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | >10,000genes analysed. Two phases of expression evolution in F1 initial condition then in stable later generations generally similar #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Wendel: domestication modified gene expression in 9000 genes in cotton (many fewer actual mutations). #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Wendel: fibre gene-expression. What have humans done during domestication? Dissecting origin of selected phenotypes #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Wendel: "three botany degrees… but I wouldn’t have known a profilin if it hit me in the head". #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Wendel Summary: "here’s what I think I said!" So many non-Mendelian events to think about! #ibc18 | |||
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That closes the plenary tweets. I’ll pick up the morning session i the next post.
