IUBMB

SMBBM

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Welcome to Marrakech, Morocco, April 23-25, 2009
On behalf of the entire organizing committee, we welcome the participants of the IUBMB Special Meeting in Marrakech, Morocco, a joint event with the V Congress of the Moroccan Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SMBBM).

ABOUT SPECIAL MEETING

The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) will host a Special Meeting in Marrakech, Morocco, April 23-25, 2009, as a joint event with the V th. Meeting of the Moroccan Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SMBBM). The Special Meeting will also be sponsored by the Moroccan Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biologyk the Federation of African Societies of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Cadi Ayyad University.

The main focus of the meeting will be the 'Mechanisms of plant resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Biochemical and Molecular aspects', an excellent choice for the IUBMB Special Meeting in Africa.

Agriculture in the world and in the Mediterranean countries and Morocco in particular, is facing drought and salinity as a major abiotic stress. Abiotic stresses arising from drought and salinity are prevalent in nature and can substantially diminish crop yields. Biochemical and molecular mechanisms that permit stress survival can allow an organism to avoid or tolerate stress.

Progress in understanding plant and animal responses to stress has been impressive. Nonetheless, numerous important questions remain unanswered. Progress in this crucial area will advance substantially our knowledge of the biochemical and molecular aspects of resistance to stresses.

Biotic stresses are caused by plant pathogens, such as fungi, bacteria and viruses. Wilt diseases are represented in the Mediterranean region by palm fusariosis, caused by Fusarium fungi for each date palm and canary palm species. More studies dealing with biochemical and molecular aspects of resistance to wilt diseases are needed.
Small RNAs (21 nucleotides long) do not code for proteins, but cause repression of gene expression (RNA interference). In October 2006 Fire and Mellow received the Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine for their pioneering work on RNA interference, and in 2006 over 14000 articles on RNA interference have been published. RNA interference has turned out to be an essential tool for the analysis of gene function and it also has important potential applications for the modification of gene function in various pathologies.
A large number of studies have also been performed on the RNA-Induced Silencing Complexes (RISC) containing these small RNAs, namely micro RNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) which are involved (among other phenomena) in resistance to abiotic stresses or to pathogens.

Oxidative stress may arise from any abiotic or biotic stress that causes the formation of a reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), superoxide anion (O2o-), hydroxyl radical (HOo), or perhydroxyl radical (HO2o). Plants scavenge and eliminate these reactive molecules by using antioxidant defence systems, antioxidants and antioxidant enzymes that are present in various sub-cellular compartments. Studies in which antioxidant enzymes are over- expressed in transgenic plants have emphasized the important role of sub-cellular compartmentation in detoxification mechanisms; that is, over-expression of antioxidant enzymes in one compartment may not improve stress tolerance if oxidant-scavenging mechanisms are limiting in other cellular compartments. How could an improvement of antioxidant systems protect from damages?

Another constraint for forestry and agriculture is insect attacks. Plant-insect interaction is a dynamic system, subjected to continual variation and change. In order to reduce insect attack, plants developed different defense mechanisms including chemical and physical barriers such as the induction of defensive proteins. In parallel, insects developed strategies to overcome plant barriers such as detoxification of toxic compounds, avoidance mechanisms, and sequestration of poison and alteration of gene expression patterns. Enhancing our knowledge of the mechanisms of plant resistance to insect attacks, could be of great help in limiting the damage. Other topics will also be covered, such as the synthesis and accumulation of a variety of storage proteins, which have been shown to be closely related to plant defense since several of these proteins present entomologic properties such as a-amylase and proteinase inhibitors, lecitins and globulins.

This Special Meeting will represent a good opportunity for the regional and international Biochemistry and Molecular Biology communities to review progress in research related to stresses. The results will advance the understanding of basic biochemical processes in the mechanisms of resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses and point to directions that are likely to promote significant social and economic impact in this field.

5 topics of the special meeting will be discussed:

TOPICS

1. Molecular based-mechanisms of plant resistance to wilt diseases

2. Bioregulators (small RNAs) and their roles in the mechanisms of plant defense against biotic and abiotic stresses

3. Oxidative stresses

4. Mechanisms of plant resistance to salinity and drought

5. Plant resistance to insect attack