Setaria Comes of Age: Meeting Report on the Second International Setaria Genetics Conference

Journal Article · 28 September 2017 · Frontiers in Plant Science

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2017.01562 · OSTI ID:1423879

Zhu, Chuanmei ^[1]; Yang, Jiani ^[1]; Shyu, Christine ^[1]

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1. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO (United States)

Setaria viridis is an emerging model for cereal and bioenergy grasses because of its short stature, rapid life cycle and expanding genetic and genomic toolkits. Its close phylogenetic relationship with economically important crops such as maize and sorghum positions Setaria as an ideal model system for accelerating discovery and characterization of crop genes that control agronomically important traits. The Second International Setaria Genetics Conference was held on March 6–8, 2017 at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO, United States to discuss recent technological breakthroughs and research directions in Setaria (presentation abstracts can be downloaded at https://www.brutnelllab.org/setaria). Here, we highlight topics presented in the conference including inflorescence architecture, C₄ photosynthesis and abiotic stress. Genetic and genomic toolsets including germplasm, mutant populations, transformation and gene editing technologies are also discussed. Since the last meeting in 2014, the Setaria community has matured greatly in the quality of research being conducted. Outreach and increased communication with maize and other plant communities will allow broader adoption of Setaria as a model system to translate fundamental discovery research to crop improvement.

• Research Organization: Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Biological Systems Science Division; National Science Foundation (NSF); USDA National Inst. of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0008769; IOS-1413824; 2014-67012-22269
• OSTI ID: 1423879
• Journal Information: Frontiers in Plant Science, Vol. 8; ISSN 1664-462X
• Publisher: Frontiers Research FoundationCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English