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Global Plant Council E-Bulletin October 2015 Forward to a Friend  | View web version (also click here to translate to other languages!)

Email Us GPC Website GPC Blog @GlobalPlantGPC @GPC_EnEspanol Facebook Donate E-Bulletin /  October 2015 Each month the Global Plant Council (GPC) brings you a round-up of the latest news, events, reports and funding opportunities from our members and the wider community. We’re sorry that the October issue is a few days late – last month was incredibly busy for us as we flew out to Brazil for 10 days for our Stress Resilience Forum (in collaboration with the SEB), which was immediately followed by the International Plant Molecular Biology conference, and lastly our Annual General Meeting. We’ll be updating the blog and our website with details of what happened when we’ve recovered from our jetlag, but in the meantime check out the hashtags #StressRes15, #IPMB2015 and #GPCAGM on Twitter! Some of the GPC AGM attendees. Photo courtesy of Deena Errampalli.

Latest News /  View more…If you have news you would like us to share on our website, please contact lisa@globalplantcouncil.org This month 62 new breaking news stories were posted on the GPC website including… Plant discovery could help develop stress-resistant crops A gene that helps plants to remain healthy during times of stress has been identified by UK researchers. Its presence helps plants to tolerate environmental pressures like drought – and it could help create crops that can better withstand adverse conditions. Root microbiome engineering improves plant growth In a recently published review paper in Trends in Microbiology, two integrative biologists present how it is possible to engineer the plant soil microbiome to improve plant growth, even if the plants are genetically identical and cannot evolve. A cure for vitamin B6 deficiency Plant scientists at ETH Zürich and the University of Geneva (Switzerland) have set out to find a way to increase vitamin B6 production in the roots and leaves of the cassava plant. This could prevent vitamin B6 deficiency among people who consume mostly cassava. First global food and agriculture plant genetics data library gets go-ahead Delegates from the 136 member nations of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture have given their approval to set up an international information gateway for the genetic data of food crop seeds. Events / View more…If you have a conference, meeting, workshop, training course or other event coming up, we can include it in our Events calendar! Please email lisa@globalplantcouncil.org Synergy in Science: Partnering for Solutions 15–18 November 2015. Minneapolis, USA. 1st Latin-American Conference on Plant Phenotyping and Phenomics for Plant Breeding 30 November–2 December 2015. Talca, Chile. 3rd International Plant Physiology Congress 11–14 December 2015, New Delhi, India. International Plant & Animal Genome XXIV 9–13 January 2016, San Diego, USA. Reports / Lots of new reports, and an archive of useful documents from the last few years, are available on our website. Head to the Resources page and click ‘Reports’. Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition  Technical Brief: Improved metrics and data are needed for effective food system policies in the post-2015 era More…G lobal Harvest Initiative Global Agricultural Productivity (GAP) Report: Building Sustainable Breadbaskets More…The Global Food Security (GFS) Programme is inviting expressions of interest from post-doctoral researchers to take part in a Policy Lab on sustainable nutrition. If you are interested in taking an interdisciplinary and systems approach to a policy-relevant issue, who would relish the opportunity to produce an evidence-based report that will be widely read by policy, industry and the public, then this is for you. Funding Opportunities / Spotted a funding opportunity we’ve missed? Please tell us about it by emailing lisa@globalplantcouncil.org There are lots of new funding opportunities available for plant science and policy research from around the world. Please take a look at our articles here (South Africa/India/Asia/Africa/Global) and here (UK/Brazil/Africa/Europe/Global) to see if you are eligible. Hurry, some of the deadlines are very soon. Applications are also now open (until 30 November 2015) for the 2016 New Phytologist Tansley Medal, awarded each year to an outstanding early-career plant science researcher. More information here. On the blog /  View more…Would you like to contribute an article to the GPC’s blog? Please get in touch! Email lisa@globalplantcouncil.org International Year of Soils Former President of the Soil Science Society of America David Lindbo tells us why we should care about soils.  More…Women in Plant Science Part 1 and Part 2 13 October was Ada Lovelace Day, named after the first computer programmer to celebrate women working in scientific disciplines. In Part 1, find out what it’s like to be a female plant scientist in Cameroon and Sweden, while in Part 2 we talk to women from Tanzania and the US. Biofortification New Media Fellow Amelia Frizell-Armitage spoke to Professor Cathie Martin about biofortification and her work to improve the nutritional content of tomatoes. More… Taking Care of Wildlings Hannes Dempewolf from the Global Crop Diversity Trust explains why it’s so important to conserve the wild relatives of our modern-day crops. More… Members /  Click here for details of the GPC member organizations and representatives Please contact Ruth Bastow (ruth@globalplantcouncil.org) to find out how your organization can join the Global Plant Council. The GPC is a coalition of plant and crop science societies from across the globe. The GPC seeks to bring plant scientists together to work synergistically toward solving the pressing problems we face. Please click here to make a donation via PayPal to help support the GPC.

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Announcing the call for applications for 2016 ASPS awards including;

2016 Peter Goldacre award, applications close November 30th 2015.

2016 ASPS Teaching Award, applications close November 30th 2015.

2016 RN Robertson Travelling Fellowships, Round I applications close November 30th 2015.

There is also a new employment opportunity at James Cook University click here for details.

and attached is an updated

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Hello everyone,

Just a quick reminder our AGM is tomorrow evening (Wednesday 30th September) at 5.35pm in Room 218 of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

See you at the ASPS dinner tonight, Janet Wheeler.

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Dear Members of ASPS,

Please be advised that the 2015 Annual General Meeting of the Australian Society of Plant Scientists will be held at 17:30 – 18:30 on Wednesday 30 September 2015 in Room 218, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Melbourne, Vic. As usual, the ASPS Annual General Meeting has been scheduled during the COMBIO conference week.

Below please find the Agenda. If you would like to add any items to the Agenda, please e-mail these to the Honorary Secretary Martha Ludwig (martha.ludwig@uwa.edu.au or secretary@asps.org.au), by Friday 25 September 2015.

Sincerely,

John Evans

(President of ASPS)

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GPC/SEB Plant Section Symposium on Stress Resilience, 23–25th October 2015, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil

Dear ASPS member,

I just read an interesting item in the Research School of Biology (ANU) newsletter included below about a paper which received sexist reviews. The authors were disappointed in the lack of response to their protest, so they tweeted parts of the review which certainly raised its profile and engagement of the journal.

Professor John Evans
President of ASPS

Sexist peer review causes storm online.
Megan Head has been in the news after she and her colleague Fiona Ingleby received an inappropriate, sexist review of a manuscript they submitted to PLoSONE. (For the record, their study surveyed male-female differences in success at obtaining post-doctoral funding/fellowships.) After an unsatisfactory review process, and having lodged an appeal and giving the journal a reasonable chance to attend to the matter, Drs Head and Ingleby posted portions of the review on Twitter. There was an eruption of online responses and articles in major print media, including the Times Higher Education, Washington Post, and Science. Megan’s experience is a timely reminder of the need to be proactive in countering sexism in science.

I would like to congratulate Professor Christine Beveridge on being elected to the Australian Academy of Sciences this week. Her research has overturned the dogma on apical dominance and introduced both sugar and strigalactones into the picture through her innovative experimental approaches and determination. Challenging long held beliefs is not easy, but elegant experimental results eventually could not be ignored. Not often does one see the text book representation getting this sort of update.
Professor John Evans,
President, Australian Society of Plant Scientists.

Once again we received a strong field of nominations for the Goldacre award which recognises excellence in an early career researcher. I am pleased to announce that this year the Goldacre medal will be awarded to Mark Waters during ComBio 2015 where he will delivery a plenary lecture on the genetics of a hormone that was discovered in bushfire smoke, so this will have an Australian flavour.

Originating from the UK, Dr Mark Waters joined the University of Western Australia in 2010 to work on the genetics of karrikin responses in Arabidopsis. Derived from burnt plant matter, karrikins are seed germination stimulants that resemble strigolactone hormones. Dr Waters’ research has elucidated early events in karrikin and strigolactone signalling, specifically involving the karrikin receptor protein KAI2. His work has established that KAI2 regulates
diverse aspects of the plant life cycle, and may be a receptor for an unknown plant hormone. Evolutionary conservation of KAI2 suggests that KAI2-dependent signalling is a fundamental and ancient process common to all plants.

I congratulate Mark for his research achievements. I would also like to applaud the other nominees, who sadly missed out, but whose research was also of very high calibre.

John Evans

President, ASPS

Attention women early career researchers and their mentors:

Fellowship opportunity for those who are up to 5 years post PhD – please consider

21st January 2015

Global Plant Council New Media Fellowship Available

The Global Plant Council (GPC) seeks applications from PhD students and postdoctoral scholars working in the area of plant science for a New Media Fellowship that carries a small stipend of US$3,500.

The Fellow’s task will be to use social media and other outlets to publicize the activities of the GPC and to expand the Council’s reach. The Council is especially interested in expanding its engagement with researchers, policy makers and other stakeholders in the fields of agriculture and food production. GPC’s leadership believes that social media channels are one mechanism to reach a wider audience, and we seek a fellow with demonstrated experience in these media to support the work of the GPC. The successful candidate will work closely with the GPC Executive Director, Dr. Ruth Bastow and members of the GPC Advocacy group.

The minimum requirements for this fellowship are :-

1. Familiarity and understanding of all forms of social media,
2. Active participation and use of at least one social media tool or outlet to promote science
3. Knowledge of and enthusiasm for plant science, and excellent English language skills.

To apply for this fellowship please send an up to date CV and letter of application to info@globalplantcouncil.org by (Friday 27 February 2015).

GPC New Media Fellowship-Final