ICAR-The International Conference on
Arabidopsis Research
Poster Themes
Abiotic Stress
Biotic Interactions
Biotic & Abiotic Stress
Applied/Translational Plant Science
Biochemistry and Metabolism
Cell Biology
Development or Developmental Mechanisms
Education, Outreach, Community Building or Support
Evolution, Ecology, or Population Biology
Epigenetics, Chromatin, and Small RNAs
Hormones/Hormone Biology
New Research Tools, Technology or Resources
Signal Transduction
Systems, Synthetic, and Computational Biology
Other
Plenary Sessions & Speakers
Reproduction, Regeneration, and Cell Identity
Jia-Wei Wang, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Ryan Lister, University of Western Australia
Li-Jia Qu, Peking University, China
Plant/Microbe Interactions, Immunity, Disease Resistance
Cara Haney, The University of British Columbia, Canada
Hailing Jin, University of California, Riverside, USA
Roger Innes, Indiana University, USA
Adaptation & Engineering for Environmental Stress Response
Lily Cheung, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Holger Puchta, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
Rashmi Sasidharan, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Epigenetics & small RNAs
Pablo Manavella, CONICET, Argentina
Xiaoqi Feng, Institute of Science and Technology Austria
Rebecca Mosher, University of Arizona, USA
Sustainable Crops/Food/Bioproducts & Improving Photosynthesis
Cristóbal Uauy, John Innes Centre, UK
Jenny Mortimer, University of Adelaide, Australia
Krishna Niyogi, UC Berkeley, USA
Development, Stress, Plasticity
Sophia Stone, Dalhousie University, Canada
Dave Jackson, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, USA
Patricia León, National Autonomous University of Mexico
Sessions Accepting Abstracts
Deadline to submit for talk consideration: Extended to April 22
Deadline to submit for POSTER presentation: May 31, 2024.
See below for instructions to submit an abstract
A Systems Approach to Decipher Plant Cell Wall Dynamics
Adaptations to Extreme Climate in Arabidopsis Extremophyte Relatives
Arabidopsis Beyond Arabidopsis - Towards Generalizable Principles in Biology
Cell Fate Control and Organogenesis: Towards Understanding and Imaging Complex Tissues
Cell-type Specific Responses for Plant Resilience to Stress- Sponsored by The Plant Journal
Chemical Genetics in Arabidopsis Research: Recent advances and Applications
Chromatin at Single-cell and Single-molecule Resolution
Deciphering the Secrets of Microbiomes in Promoting Stress Resilience in Plants – a Strategy for Achieving Agricultural Sustainability
Dynamic Plant Cells: Organelle Dynamics and Celll Division During Development
Environmental and Tissue-Specific Regulation of Plant Circadian Rhythms
Epigenetics
Epigenome and Epitranscriptome in Environmental Stress Signaling and Memory
Evolutionary Plant Systems Biology for Climate Adaptation
From Arabidopsis to Crops: Unveiling the Secrets of Elemental Nutrient Uptake, Allocation, and Biofortification (Monday, pre-ICAR session)
From Perception to Memory: How Plants Adapt to Climate Change
Genomic Features and Mechanisms of Mutation
Hormonal Influence on Plant Form
Light and Warm Temperature Crosstalk in Plants: a Concerted Response to Optimise Growth and Fitness
Long-distance Signaling in Times of Stress
Mobile DNA and Genome Plasticity
Molecular Mechanisms of Hormone Function
More than Growth: Plant Development in Plant-Biotic Interactions
New Methods to Accelerate Plant Synthetic Biology (Monday, pre-ICAR session)
Phenotypic Plasticity in Arabidopsis thaliana - Mechanisms and Evolution
Pushing the Boundaries of Single-cell omics Technologies and Applications
Quantitative Proteomics Applications to Dissect Signal Transduction in Arabidopsis
RNA Modifications and Their Role in Plants
Robustness and Resilience: Surviving a Changing Climate
Seed Biology: Development, Germination and Dormancy
Stress Combination: A New Frontier in Plant Sciences- Sponsored by Quantitative Plant Biology journal, co-owned by Cambridge University Press & John Innes Centre
Synthesis and Function of Plant Specialized Metabolites that Regulate Development and Stress Responses
The Roles of Biomolecular Condensates and Their Interactions with The Membrane System
Tiny Pores With Global Impact
Translational Research from Arabidopsis to Crop Plants and Beyond- Sponsored by The Plant Cell
Visualizing the Dynamics of Cell Biology During Plant Development and Environmental Stresses
NOT ACCEPTING ABSTRACTS- Charting the Course and Weathering Storms: Organizational Practices and Individual Actions that Support Scientists as they Navigate CareerTransitions
NOT ACCEPTING ABSTRACTS- Our Community Effort to Reannotate the Arabidopsis Genome
July 15-19, 2024
UC San Diego
San Diego, California
Deadlines and How to Submit an Abstract (for a talk or poster)
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINES
APRIL 15: TO BE CONSIDERED FOR A TALK- extended to 22 April
MAY 31: TO PRESENT A POSTER
HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT
(YOU CAN SUBMIT ONLY 1 ABSTRACT WHICH CAN BE REVIEWED IN 1 OR 2 SESSIONS, ABOVE. OR, IF YOU ONLY WANT TO PRESENT A POSTER, YOU WILL INDICATE “POSTER ONLY” IN YOUR SUBMISSION. SEE INSTRUCTIONS)
Preferred: Online Abstract Portal- most people should submit their abstract this way
Only if you cannot submit via the portal: Offline/Manual submission (e.g., abstract portal reported to be inaccessible in China)
The first international Arabidopsis conference was held in 1965 in Göttingen, Germany. Interest in using Arabidopsis was somewhat limited until the late 1970s/early 1980s when several researchers in the US, the UK, and the Netherlands began undertaking experiments and mutant screens. A major breakthrough in the 1990s- a successful and relatively simple genetic transformation by agrobacterium and floral dip- helped to catapult the field of Arabidopsis genetics forward. Combined with the multi-national collaboration to sequence the Arabidopsis genome, Arabidopsis was firmly established as the model reference flowering plant by the late 1990s.
ICAR, a key component to the success of the worldwide Arabidopsis community, has proven to be a highly effective venue for creating and enhancing networks and collaboration. Many scientists, including those trained in other organisms, were inspired to use Arabidopsis in their studies, training, and outreach. The ICAR became an exciting gathering to share the latest cutting-edge research, resources, techniques, and tools using the reference plant. ICAR has also proven to be an extremely effective venue for exposing early career scientists to the field and for encouraging inter-generational interactions.
The community has convened at the ICAR annually since 1995
Currently, it ranges in size from ~500-1500 attendees, and its location rotates globally on a three year cycle.
The meetings are organized by local community volunteers
NAASC organizes the ICARs taking place in North America (and also, ICAR 2007- Beijing), and has awarded ICAR participation funding since 2004:
Awarded travel funds to 500+ early career scholars to participate in all ICARs
Awarded full-funding participation awards to 110+ Inclusivity Scholars Program Cohort members
ICAR 2021-Virtual
The most recent NAASC-organized ICAR was held virtually
Originally scheduled for the University of Washington, Seattle, it was postponed from 2020 to 2021 due to the global COVID 19 global pandemic. Due to the lingering pandemic, it was later converted to an online event
ICAR 2021-Virtual had ~ 1000 participants from 40 countries
The first virtual ICAR was a success with 300+ speakers across 51 scientific session.
Summary of novel approaches taken for ICAR 2021:
First for an ICAR, and rapidly adopted by numerous other plant biology conferences, as well as future ICAR organizers: we introduced 36 community-proposed and led mini-symposia
Organizers selected invited plenary & keynote speakers, including through community nomination, that hadn't been featured in 5+ years at either ICAR or annual ASPB meetings
We developed new plenary session topics around bigger mechanistic themes; a balance of fundamental discoveries with work that showcases applied research & a focus on the broad set of tools of high utility available for Arabidopsis that enable translation to important crop species
We diversified speakers in sessions & engaged non-traditional speakers including prioritizing balanced demographics (gender & career stage)
We dramatically increased the number of opportunities (N=300+) for participants to present their work
We added discussion sessions at the end of all concurrent symposia
We introduced the NAASC ICAR Code of Conduct
Outcomes
Attendees from nearly 250 institutions/companies
300+ speakers
50% increase (over average) of number of countries participants came from
First time ICAR attendees: 61%
Funders & Sponsors enabled nearly 1/3 of attendees to participate
2 Keynote sessions
7 Plenary sessions
36 community-led mini-symposia
6 community-led workshops
Mini-symposium Speakers: 52% women, 44% men, 3% preferred not to say, 1% non-binary
Mini-symposium Speakers: 40% postdocs and students; 27% junior faculty (pre-tenure); 26% senior faculty (post-tenure); 8% other (rounded)
24 invited platform speakers: 52% women, 48% men
Mini-symposia, Keynote, and Plenary session talks were recorded and posted online 1 week prior to ICAR; they remained accessible for 6 weeks post-ICAR
Each session had a live Q&A and discussion component
Past ICARs
April 1965, Gottingen, Germany
September 1976, Frankfurt, Germany
April 1987, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
June 1990, Vienna, Austria
August 1993, Columbus, Ohio, USA NAASC organized
June 1995, Madison, Wisconsin, USA NAASC organized
June 1996, Norwich, UK- organized by UK community
June 1997, Madison, Wisconsin, USA NAASC organized
June 1998, Madison, Wisconsin, USA NAASC organized
July 1999, Melbourne, Australia-organized by Australian community
June 2000, Madison, Wisconsin, USA NAASC organized
June 2001, Madison, Wisconsin, USA NAASC organized
June 2002, Seville, Spain-organized by Spanish community
June 2003, Madison, Wisconsin, USA NAASC organized
July 2004, Berlin, Germany-organized by German community
June 2005, Madison, Wisconsin, USA NAASC organized
June 2006, Madison, Wisconsin, USA NAASC organized
July 2007, Beijing, China NAASC organized
July 2008, Montreal, Canada NAASC organized
June 2009, Edinburgh, UK-organized by UK community
June 2010, Yokohama, Japan-organized by Japanese community
June 2011, Madison, Wisconsin, USA NAASC organized
July 2012, Vienna, Austria-organized by Austrian community
June 2013, Sydney, Australia-organized by Australian community
July 2014, Vancouver, Canada NAASC organized
July 2015, Paris, France-organized by French community
June 2016, Gyeongju, South Korea-organized by Korean community
June 2017, St. Louis, Missouri, USA NAASC organized
June 2018, Turku, Finland-organized by Finnish community
June 2019, Wuhan, China-organized by Chinese community
June 2021, Virtual NAASC organized
June 2022, Belfast, Northern Ireland-organized by UK community
June 2023, Chiba, Japan-organized by Japanese community
in progress: July 2024, UC San Diego, USA NAASC organized
