Annual Plant Sciences Institute Symposia
The 9th Annual Plant Sciences Institute Symposium took place May 31-June 3, 2007. As part of an ongoing series sponsored by the Plant Sciences Institute at Iowa State University, the symposia topics center on themes in plant genetics, molecular biology and biochemistry.
This year's symposium was entitled "Epistasis:Predicting Phenotypes and Evolutionary Trajectories." Full video coverage and PowerPoint presentations from the conference can be viewed at http://schnablelab.plantgenomics.iastate.edu/epistasis2007/speakers.php
Epistasis is the science of gene-gene interactions. When genes exert control over others in an organism, they determine which phenotype is expressed. Epistasis plays critical roles in processes important to livestock and crop improvement as well as to evolution in natural populations.
Epistasis reduces parent-offspring resemblance and can decrease an organism's response to selection pressures. It can be a component in heterosis, the phenomenon whereby offspring can outperform both parents, and can serve to maintain a reservoir of potential genetic variation far exceeding apparent variation.
Novel biotechnologies to identify interaction candidates promise to give us unprecedented access to the molecular mechanisms of epistasis. At the same time, epistasis remains an obstacle in the identification of target genotypes for modern animal and crop improvement.
Additional sponsorship for the symposium came from the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology, the Office of Biotechnology, Iowa State University, the United States Department of Agriculture-CSREES NRI, the Center for Integrated Animal Genomics Molecular Express, Inc., and the Iowa State University Graduate College.
