The Congress and Meetings links are updated

The links to some of the most interesting Congresses of 2009 are already updated on the side bar of the blog.

See you there.

Short resume of the Xth Symposium of the International Organization of Plant Biosystematics

Before updating all the usual sections of the blog, I want to leave you a very short overview of the Xth Symposium of the International Organization of Plant Biosystematics. Overall, the Symposium was a success both in organization and scientific value. The venue was held on the beautiful High Tatras which was another positive aspect.

Flow cytometry speaking it was nice to see that there are more and more researchers using this technique to help solving byosystematic and taxonomy problems. The number of posters where flow cytometry was used exceeded the 20 and several talks also referred its usefulness and potential for large scale ploidy level and genome size analyses. The only regret was the unexpected cancelling of D. Soltis talk due to passport issuing problems. Maybe next time...

Finally, Jan Suda wonderfully and enthusiastically presented a talk addressing all the potentialities that the technique has in the field of Biosystematics, which was a sure highlight of the congress's second day.

I leave you some other pictures from the Tatras journey:

Xth Symposium of the International Organization of Plant Biosystematics

The next Symposium of the International Organization of Plant Biosystematics will occur next week (from the 2nd to the 4th of July) in Visoké Tatry, Slovakia. This year the meeting will be devoted to the evolution of plants in montainous and alpine habitats. The impact that flow cytometry has been having in this area is well patent in the Symposium Scientific Programme as there will be one talk totally dedicated to it (Jan Suda, Praha - From individuals to populations: the impact of flow cytometry on understanding polyploid evolution in mountain plants) and some more talks that will certainly focus on data obtained using this powerful and high throughput technique.

The main topics that will be focused are:
PHYLOGEOGRAPHY
BIOGEOGRAPHY
EVOLUTIONARY PROCESSES IN EUROPEAN MOUNTAIN RANGES
POLYPLOIDY
MOLECULAR APPROACHES IN PLANT EVOLUTION
ECOLOGICAL FACTORS IN PLANT EVOLUTION
EVOLUTIONARY PROCESSES IN EXTRA-EUROPEAN MOUNTAINS
ROLE OF APOMIXIS IN PLANT EVOLUTION

There is still the possibility to register on site, so do not miss this opportunity to, besides enjoying a Symposium with a rather interesting programme (which should be the main purpose!), discover this beautiful mountain area of Slovakia.

I hope to see you there.

ISAC Congress - Plant FCM Workshop Presentations

Despite that the Congress was already over almost one month ago, we are still summarizing some of the plant related events. Now, it is time to provide you with the presentations given in the plant FCM workshops (click on each image for download). The presentations may be used without copyright restrictions except for commercial or for profit use, provided there is some credit to the author and reference to this blog.

Workshop - Plant genome structure and gene expression - organized by David Galbraith and Jaroslav Dolezel











Presentations available by Jan Suda (Preparation and storage of plant samples for DNA flow cytometry), João Loureiro (The effect of cytosol on quantitative staining of nuclear DNA), Johann Greilhuber (Standardization and Standards), Jaroslav Dolezel (Chromosome analysis and sorting) and David Galbraith (Analysis of gene expression, including flow analysis and sorting of organelles and large cells)

Workshop - Plant evolutionary biology, biosystematics and ecology - organized by Brian Husband and Jan Suda







Presentations available by Jan Suda (The impact of FCM on plant Biosystematics and Taxonomy), Paul Kron (Flow Cytometry: Applications in the Study of Plant Reproductive Systems) and Brian Husband (Flow Cytometry and The Evolutionary Dynamics of Polyploids).

We hope that you enjoy the presentations.

ISAC Congress - The plant sciences team

For prosperity the picture of the organizing team of the plant sciences sections of the ISAC Congress.

(from left to right: Jaroslav Dolezel, João Loureiro, David Galbraith, Jan Suda, Johann Greilhuber, Brian Husband and Paul Kron)

ISAC Congress - Day 5

And so the last day of the XXIV ISAC Congress came, and since the morning we could see the difference in the number of participants that were present in the Budapest Sportsarena. After 4 long days, the exhaustion was already felt, personally speaking, but there was still time for some last chatting with the commercial exhibiters and most importantly, to profit from another interesting workshop dedicated to the plant sciences. Jan Suda, Brian Husband and Paul Kron brought for the first time the world of plant evolutionary biology, biosystematics and ecology to the ISAC Congress, and I was very happy to witness that at least a dozen participants were interested. As expected, the workshop was very good with the speakers presenting several examples on the potentialities that flow cytometry has on such fields together with some "controversy" related topics on best practices.

Then was time to relax, drink some hungarian beers in a local pub and eat some typical food, before going to rest with the idea that everything was done to fulfil the objectives of the Congress. Of course, we leave the evaluation for the participants... and we hope that they have enjoyed as much as I did.

ISAC Congress - Day 4

The Day 4 of the now International Society of Advancements on Cytometry saw the comeback of the plant sciences, first by the presence of Jaroslav Dolezel in the Parallel Session of "High Throughput, High Content Analysis" with the very interesting talk on "Development of Flow-Based Strategies for Genomics of Crop Plants". There were also some interesting talks on the Advances in Flow Cytometry Instrumentation, especially those related with Acoustically Focused Sample Streams.

The day continued with the presentation of the FlowJo Software, this time dedicated to the bare basics. It seems quite a powerful tool, but still I would like to test it myself to evaluate which features may be of particular interest for plant DNA flow cytometry purposes. Again, and as with the new instruments, I will soon dedicate a post to the new software that was presented in the Congress.


In the afternoon the first Workshop dedicated to plants took place "Plant Genome Structure and Gene Expression", and to our surprise up to 25 people were present, which clearly surpassed our best expectations. The Workshop was wonderfully conducted by Jaroslav Dolezel and David Galbraith, and we had nice talks made by Jan Suda, Johann Greilhuber and by both chairmans, which covered several topics on the application of FCM in plant sciences, from sample preparation and storage, standards and standardizations, chromosome sorting for studies of genome structure and protoplasts and nuclei sorting for studies of gene expression. I had the opportunity to present some slides on the effect of cytosol on the quantitative staining of DNA, which despite being well received, w perhaps too technical for what was intended. However in each talk, some interesting questions were made and in the end we were satisfied with the overall output and reception of the workshop.

The poster session was just afterwards and again it was a nice opportunity to present the FLOWer database to many different people. The reception was good and it was a very nice idea of the congress organizers to put all the poster of similar areas close to each other.

By the end of the day, I was almost "dead" but there were still some forces for some good dinner and fruitful discussions.

ISAC Congress - Day 3

The ISAC continues and the Day 3 was for me mostly dedicated to the commercial exhibitors. The Exhibit Hall presents many interesting offers and we can see the rise of smaller companies that are providing very interesting and competitive instruments. From what concerns the plant flow cytometry world, where the Partec flow cytometers rule, tough competition may start to appear. Partec itself presented their latest offers in the lunch commercial tutorial, but later on, in a different post, I will make a more dedicate overview of which (new) instruments were presented in the congress that might be of interest to plant flow cytometrists. The Congress itself was not very attractive, i.e., after the extraordinary Sunday it came the more so... so Monday...

Some more ISAC photos

The Budapest Sportsarena, home of the ISAC Congress for 5 days:



The exhibit hall:


The main auditorium:

ISAC Congress - Day 2

The second day of the ISAC congress may well be remembered as one of the most interesting, despite three days are still to come.

The day couldn't have started better with the interesting parallel session on the "Advances in Flow Cytometry Instrumentation I" where I would like to highlight the innovative approach directed to increase the measurement rates of current flow cytometers, laser rastering. The session was pretty full has it can be easily perceived from the picture.

Further highlights from Sunday include the impact that cytometry has been having in Marine Microbiology, as impressively presented by Ger van der Engh, and the High-Throughput microscopy analysis of the cytoskeleton, showed by Ronald Vale.

The commercial tutorial given by Tree Star, Inc. on the FlowJo software and on what advanced features will be present in the upcoming versions of the software was also quite interesting.

However, the cherry on top of the cake (I hope that this expression also makes some sense in English) was Howard Shapiro talk by the end of the day. As usual, he guided us through the History of Cytometry with his nice, sometimes bitter, sense of humour that pleased all the audience. For the end, a new version of his famous poem, now renamed as "There Is A Business Like Flow Business", was presented, wonderfully accompanied by background music and his still nice voice.

Our poster on the FLOWer database presented in ISAC Congress 2008

ISAC Congress - Day 1

Today, the XXIV International Congress of ISAC started in the beautiful city of Budapest. As promoted in previous posts of the blog, right in early morning the first activity related to plant flow cytometry, the tutorial dedicated to the estimation of genome size in plants, took place. Due to the extra costs of such an activity together with the already high costs of the Congress, only two participants attended to the tutorial. So, it was one of those occasions where the tutors outnumbered the students/participants... what a luxury! More seriously, we were sorry that there were not more people interested in our area, but I must also say that our expectations were not so high, as most of the participants are from the biomedical field. In case you are interested in knowing what you've missed, you can download the presentation in pdf format at: http://rapidshare.com/files/115567579/Tutorial__final_.pdf.html

The poster that we bring to the congress is already mounted in its panel just near the entrance of the main room of the Arena, where the chaos still rules with all the commercial exhibitors preparing their booth's with their top products.

The Congress officially started in the afternoon with the Frontiers talks dedicated to some technological advances in cytometry and with the Keynote Lecture given by Dr. Lansing Taylor on the Evolution of Image Cytometry.

Now, it is time for the Opening Reception, a nice opportunity to meet other researchers while snacking and drinking some "traditional" Hungarian starters.

The ISAC congress is coming...

The XXIV International Congress of ISAC is starting already in the following 17th of May and I look forward for the event. I will make a daily report of the congress, accompanied by some documenting pictures. So keep tuned...

For your appetizing I will leave you with the advertising that will be made of one of the highlights in what concerns plant flow cytometry - the Workshop "Plant Genome Structure and Gene Expression". I hope that all the people in the picture are heading to the Budapest Sportsarena for the workshop. We do not mind the sporty clothes!

Dear ISAC Congress Attendee:

Jaroslav Dolezel and David Galbraith would like to invite you to attend Workshop 5 “Plant Genome Structure and Gene Expression” at the International ISAC Congress in Budapest. This workshop is scheduled for 15:45-17:15 on Tuesday, 20 May 2008, and will be held in the Red Room.

This workshop is aimed not simply at scientists interested in employing flow and image cytometry for the manipulation of plant cells, tissues, organs, and organelles. It also will provide valuable information for Operators and Core Managers having no prior experience with plant samples, who increasingly will encounter plant scientists interested in using their technologies and instruments in their plant-based research.

Topics to be presented and discussed will include:

• Preparation and storage of samples for DNA flow cytometry.
• Combating the negative effect of cytosol on nuclear DNA staining.
• Standardization for reliable estimation of nuclear genome size.
• Chromosome isolation and sorting.
• Analysis of gene expression, including flow analysis and sorting of organelles and large cells.

There will also be opportunities provided for questions, comments, etc., from the audience.

WORKSHOP PROGRAM:

Moderators: Jaroslav Dolezel (Olomouc, CR) and David Galbraith (Tucson, USA)

Short presentations on each topic will be given by:

• Jan Suda (Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic)
• Johann Greilhuber (University of Vienna, Austria)
• João Loureiro (Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic)
• Jaroslav Dolezel (Institute of Experimental Botany, Olomouc, Czech Republic)
• David Galbraith (University of Arizona, Tucson, USA)

Open Discussion will follow.

ISAC XXIV International Congress, May 17-21, 2008, Budapest, Hungary
http://www.isac-net.org/congress2008/

European Cytometry Network Meeting report

The EMBL Flow Cytometry Core Facility has just posted the report of First European Cytometry Network Meeting (28-29th February 2008) that I've been talking you about recently on the blog. It is a very interesting reading on the expectations of the participants of the meeting. It also provides a current state of the community.

Download the report

The main developers of the network, Andy Ridell and Alexis Gonzalez, are still open to your feedback, so you can get access to the survey that was made in here. After filling it you can send it to:
Flow Cytometry Core Facility
EMBL Meyerhofstr. 1,
Heidelberg D-69117
Germany

Enjoy your reading! By the way in the picture you can have an idea of the countries represented in the European Network Cytometry Meeting.

Late-breaking submissions on ISAC 2008 congress

There are still 6 days to submit an abstract to present a poster in the next ISAC Congress in Budapest (17th to 21st of May). The organization opened the late-breaking submissions until the next 9th of April, so this is the last chance to bring some of your work to the most important congress on cytometry.

I remember that this is the first time that plant flow cytometry is highly represented in a ISAC Congress. There will be a tutorial and two workshops totally dedicated to this important, but still minority field of flow cytometry.

Please read this older post of the blog for further details concerning the congress and especially the plant sciences sections.

And Budapest is also very beautiful!

FESPB CONGRESS 2008

Dear all,

From the 17th to the 22nd of August, the FESPB (Federation of European Societies of Plant Biologist) congress will be held in Tampere, Finland.Two other satellite congress will be held in parallel, the Moss 2008 and the Peroxidase 2008.
"The scientific programme of the FESPB 2008 will cover most aspects of modern plant biology. The aim is to arrange a conference with the highest scientific quality and novelty with wide international representation of experimental plant biology, from molecular biology to ecophysiology."

for more information, check the programme: http://www.fespb2008.org/outline.htm
and the event homepage: http://www.fespb2008.org/

Whenever new relevant information becomes avaliable, this blog will be updated.

The European Cytometry Network Meeting - 2.0 Cytometry

As announced in here, last week, the European Cytometry Network meeting occurred in Heidelberg (indeed, a very nice city in Germany), and what a nice meeting it was. The hosts, Andy Riddell and Alexis Gonzalez, were excellent, as well as most of the conferences. We were also quite happy with the overall feedback on the talk that we gave (you can download it here: Plant Flow Cytometry - Heidelberg) and with the nice contacts that were made. But enough of bla, bla, and let's have a small summary of the main ideas of the meeting.

Andy and Alexis presented us with their idea of a possible European Cytometry Network meeting that would have the simple purpose of helping cytometry researchers and related scientists to get closer to each other. For that, besides other things, a proposal for creating a website 2.0 was made. For those that are not familiar with these websites, they work similarly to Myspace, Windows Live Spaces or Facebook, where each registered user can easily connect to other users, share documents, links, interests and information, enabling a straightforward communication with other members of the online community. And all these things are usually very easy to do, even for less experiences users. It is a very interesting idea and they have already designed some interesting and appealing website, that is only in need of an appropriate server.

Of course, a physical structure for the network is in discussion for the future, but more importantly the meeting intended to create some brainstorming of people's ideas and interests on such a network. So, Andy and Alexis are eager to know what are your ideas for such a network and you can contact them at the EMBL Flow Cytometry Core Facility webpage. For sure it is not intended to compete with ISAC and National Cytometry Societies, but it is rather a congregation of information that could help when requesting for funds and that could ease the contacts at European level.

We will keep you updated on the advances of the Network.

Annals of Botany - Plant Genome Horizons - Forthcoming Special Issue

The Annals of Botany, one of the leading journals in plant genome publications, is preparing another special issue, entitled "Plant Genome Horizons". This special issue will contain some of the works that were presented in the occasion of the conference with the same name (Kew, 16 and 17th of April 2007) that marked Prof. Mike Bennett's retirement and celebrated his scientific career.

From the Annals of Botany future papers here follows some of the articles that will be included in this forthcoming issue. Please note that some of them are already available online via the AoBPreview

A Century of B Chromosomes in Plants ? So What?
Jones RN, Viegas W, Houben A

Dissecting Meiosis of Rye using Translational Proteomics
Phillips D, Mikhailova EI, Timofejeva L, Mitchell JL, Osina O, Sosnikhina SP, Jones RN, Jenkins G

Cytochemistry and C-values: The Less-well Known World of Nuclear DNA Amounts
Greilhuber J

Detailed Dissection of the Chromosomal Region Containing the Ph1 Locus in Wheat Triticum aestivum: With Deletion Mutants and Expression Profiling
Al-Kaff N, Knight E, Bertin I, Foote T, Hart N, Griffiths S, Moore G

Biosystematics and Conservation: A Case Study with Two Enigmatic and Uncommon Species of Crassula from New Zealand
De Lange PJ, Heenan PB, Keeling DJ, Murray BG, Smissen R, Sykes WR

Anthocyanin Inhibits Propidium Iodide DNA Fluorescence in Euphorbia pulcherrima: Implications for Genome Size Variation and Flow Cytometry
Bennett MD, Price HJ, Johnston, JS

Review. Genome Size Scaling through Phenotype Space
Knight CA, Beaulieu JM

The Ups and Downs of Genome Size Evolution in Polyploid Species of Nicotiana (Solanaceae)
Leitch IJ, Hanson L, Lim KY, Kovarik A, Chase MW, Clarkson JJ, Leitch AR

Review: Allopolyploidization Accommodated Genomic Sequence Changes in Triticale
Ma X-F, Gustafson JP

When Genomes Collide: Aberrant Seed Development Following Maize Interploidy Crosses
Pennington PD, Costa LM, Gutierrez-Marcos JF, Greenland AJ, Dickinson HG

Development of a Genomic Microsatellite Library in Perennial Ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and its Use in Trait Mapping
King J, Thorogood D, Edwards KJ, Armstead IP, Roberts L, Skøt K, Hanley Z, King IP

Evolution of rDNA in Nicotiana Allopolyploids: A Potential Link between rDNA Homogenization and Epigenetics
Kovarik A, Dadejova M, Lim YK, Chase MW, Clarkson JJ, Knapp S, Leitch AR

We look forward for this Special Issue of AoB as the manuscripts that will be included seem very promising.

An update on the European Cytometry Network Meeting

As posted below, with the aim to create a network of European Cytometrists, next 28th and 29th of February a meeting will be held in Heidelberg, Germany. Now, there are more details concerning the meeting, particularly, the preliminary programme and the registration procedure (by the way, the deadline for registration was extended until the 3rd of February). Head to the meeting webpage at the EMBL facility for this and more information.

European Cytometry Network meeting

Last October during the DGfZ meeting, the Flow Cytometry Core Laboratory at EMBL Heidelberg has proposed to form an European network of Cytometrists with the aim of close co-operation between different cytometry Societies, Organisations and Laboratories within Europe. More specifically the goals of these network will focus on education, on the promotion of cytometry techniques and on the support of local and regional meetings. You can have a look at the poster that was presented in the DGfZ meeting in here.

For discussing such a network the FCC Laboratory is organizing a meeting to take place at EMBL Heidelberg, Germany on the 28th and 29th of February 2008. Please head to their webpage for more details.

We have just been invited by Andy Riddell to present a talk about plant flow cytometry in the meeting, which is quite an honour for us. As soon as we have more details we will give further news in the blog and forum.

A special acknowledgement to Andy Riddell for all his efforts.