Meeting Programme
Sunday 20th June
14.00 Registration Opens
18.00 Welcome Reception
Monday 21st June
08.50 Opening Address
Session 1 – Genomics & Evolution I
09.15 Monique Turmel, Université Laval, Canada
Tracking the evolution of the chloroplast genome in green algae.
09.50 Paul G. Wolf, Utah State University, USA
The Evolution of chloroplast genes and genomes in ferns.
10.25 Shu-Miaw Chaw, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
Structural dynamics and evolution of chloroplast genomes (cpDNAs) in gymnosperms.
BREAK
11.15 Robert K. Jansen, University of Texas, USA
Extreme Reconfiguration of Plastid Genomes in the Angiosperm Family Geraniaceae: Rearrangements, Repeats, and Codon Usage.
11.50 Susann Wicke, University of Vienna, Austria
Plastid Genome Evolution in (non-) photosynthetic flowering plants.
12.25 Ki-Joong Kim, Korea University, Seoul, Korea
The Chloroplast Genome Evolution in the Endemic Plant Taxa.
LUNCH
Session 2 – Genomics & Evolution II
14.15 Kenneth H. Wolfe, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Hypermutation as a cause of gene losses from legume chloroplast genomes.
14.50 Jeremy Timmis, University of Adelaide, Australia.
Plastid DNA transfer to the nucleus, mechanisms, genetic fate and raisons d’etre.
15.25 Vadim Goremykin, IASMA, Italy.
mtDNA of Vitis vinifera and sequence exchanges involving chloroplast and mitochondrial DNA.
BREAK
16.15 Karsten Liere, Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany
The ups and downs of organellar genes & genomes.
16.50 Michael Wilkinson, Aberystwyth University, UK
Determining the efficacy of chloroplast transformation for biocontainment on a landscape scale
17.25 Brent L. Nielsen, Brigham Young University, USA
Dual-targeted DNA polymerases and chloroplast DNA replication in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Session 3 - Poster Presentations
18.00 Poster viewing
Session 4 – Student Oral Presentations
19.00 Andrew Lloyd, The University of Adelaide, Australia.
Functional transfer of a chloroplast transgene to the nucleus in tobacco.
19.25 Csanad Gurdon, The State University of New Jersey, USA
Survey reveals maternal and biparental modes of plastid inheritance in Medicago truncatula.
Tuesday 22nd June
Session 5 – Biotechnology I
09.15 Ralph Bock, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Potsdam-Golm, Germany
Engineering vitamin biosynthetic pathways by plastid transformation.
09.50 Henry Daniell, University of Central Florida, U.S.A.
Chloroplasts as bioreactors for biofuel enzymes, biopharmaceuticals and vaccines.
10.25 Manuel Dubald, Bayer BioScience, Lyon, France
How do plants cope with the massive accumulation of foreign proteins in recombinant chloroplasts?
BREAK
11.15 Hiroki Ashida, NAIST, Japan
Expression of the functional human thioredoxin-1 protein in lettuce chloroplasts.
11.50 Jihong Liu Clarke, Bioforsk, Norway
Expression of recombinant nodavirus antigens in tobacco chloroplasts.
12.25 Shao-chen Xing, Jilin Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Changchun, China
Expression of green fluorescent protein in chloroplasts of Medicago sativa L.
LUNCH
Session 6 – Biotechnology II
14.15 Beth Ahner, Cornell University, USA
Optimization of Transgenes for Effective Production of Catalytic Enzymes in Transgenic Chloroplasts.
14.50 Fredy Altpeter, University of Florida, USA
Production of hyperthermostable xylanase Xyl10B in transplastomic plants converts hemicellulose to fermentable sugars for fuel ethanol.
15.25 Oscar N. Ruiz, Inter American University of Puerto Rico.
Chloroplast-Based Biofuels.
BREAK
16.15 Philip Dix, NUI Maynooth, Ireland
Modification of reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging capacity of chloroplasts through plastid transformation.
16.50 Stephen Mayfield, University of California San Diego, USA
Micro-algae as a platform for the production of therapeutic proteins.
17.25 Saul Purton, University College London, UK
Chloroplast genetic engineering in algae: progress and challenges.
BREAK
Session 7 – Student Oral Presentations
18.30 Anna Hennig, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany
The stability of recombinant proteins in tobacco chloroplasts is affected by their amino terminal signal sequences.
18.55 Ahmad Niaz, Imperial College London, UK
Contained and high-level production of recombinant protein inchloroplasts.
19.20 Petya Zhelyazkova, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany
The primary transcriptome of chloroplasts determined by deep sequencing.
Wednesday 23rd June
Session 8 – Gene Expression
09.15 Jean-David Rochaix, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Regulation of chloroplast gene expression through the nucleus.
09.50 Alice Barkan, University of Oregon, USA
Toward a mechanistic understanding of the roles of pentatricopeptide repeat proteins in organellar gene expression.
10.25 Silva Lerbs-Mache, IRTSV, Grenoble, France
Role of sigma factors in plastid gene expression.
BREAK
11.15 Zach Adam, The Hebrew University, Israel.
Membrane-bound proteases in chloroplasts – roles in biogenesis and maintenance.
11.50 Wojciech Majeran, CNRS, France
Chloroplast development and cell-type specific differentiation in C4 plants; a systems view
12.25 Vanga Siva Reddy, ICGEB, India
A comparative proteomic study of psaA and psbA deletion mutants reveals large scale down-regulation of nuclear encoded genes with functions in the chloroplast.
LUNCH
Session 9 – Gene Expression & Technology Development
14.15 John C. Gray, University of Cambridge, UK.
Protein stability is a major determinant of transgene expression in tobacco chloroplasts.
14.50 Pal Maliga, The State University of New Jersey, USA
Progress in switching from tissue culture to whole plants for engineering the plastid genome of higher plants
15.25 Anil Day, The University of Manchester, UK
Tools for plastid transformation and marker excision.
BREAK
16.15 Peter Medgyesy, NUI Maynooth, Ireland
The unique DNA integration mechanism of higher-plant plastids.
16.50 Xenie Johnson, CNRS, Paris, France
MRL1 plays a key role in the biogenesis of RuBisCO in Chlamydomonas.
17.25 Michele Bellucci, IGV, Perugia, Italy
A plant secretory signal peptide targets to thylakoid membrane plastome-encoded recombinant proteins.
18.00 Christian Schmitz-Linneweber, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
An Organellar Maturase Associates with Multiple Group II Introns.
20.00 Symposium Dinner