The 16th international congress on sexual plant reproduction was held at The Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta, Canada April 1-5, 2000. The congress was organized by David Cass (University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada), Art Davis and Vipen Sawhney (University of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, Canada), and Yvonne Dixon (The Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada). There were about 160 delegates from 23 countries. The congress consisted of 2 special lectures, 6 symposia (38 individual talks) over 4 days, and nearly 90 poster presentations. One of the special lectures was the keynote address entitled "Sexual Plant Reproduction: past, present, and future," given by Joseph Mascarenhas (State University of New York at Albany, U.S.A.). The other special lecture, "Conifer reproduction: diversity in a small but ancient group," was given by John Owens (University of Victoria, Canada).
Symposium topics were: experimental embryogenesis; flowering and flower development; environmental stress and reproduction; apomixis; pollen tube growth; male sterility and hybrid seed production. In addition to symposium talks and special lectures, there were approximately 90 poster presentations, which delegates could view at their convenience. A general meeting of the IASPRR was held after the apomixis symposium on Monday, April 3. A banquet was held in the evening of Tuesday, April 4 at the conclusion of which special recognition was given to Ms. Yvonne Dixon, Conference Services Manager of The Banff Centre, for her inspired assistance in putting this conference together, and to Dr. Michiel Willemse, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands, for his lifetime contributions to the IASPRR. At the closing ceremonies on Wednesday, April 5, awards were made to Kristen A. Lennon, University of California, Riverside, California, U.S.A., for her poster on pollen tube structure of Arabidopsis, to Jeffrey D. Pylatiuk, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada for his poster on hybrid seed production in Brassica napus, and to M. Sofia Cordeiro, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal, for her symposium talk on chloride and potassium fluxes during pollen tube growth in Lilium. The conference ended with lunch on Wednesday, April 5.
Our conference was an interesting blend of both basic and applied science. The basic parts included new information on the genetics of floral development, electrophysiology of pollen tube growth, stylar extracellular matrix structure as it relates to pollen tube growth, genes controlling apomixis, experiments with living flowering plant embryos, the effects of environmental stress on plant reproduction, and male sterility and hybrid seed production. Many of these topics have important applications to crop production. For example, the group from Hamburg, Germany has developed a method for introducing a novel gene into sperm cells of maize. Zygotes resulting from in vitro fusion of eggs with transgenic sperms express the novel gene. This result is important to researchers interested in developing different approaches for the introduction of new genetic material into plants at very early stages. Researchers at Pioneer Hi-Bred have developed a line of maize which is male sterile unless the tassels are sprayed with biotin. Their result means that male fertility can be "switched on" when pollination is required. If the biotin spray is not used, the plants remain male sterile.
Sponsors for IASPRR 2000 were: Ag-West Biotech, Inc., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada; Aventis CropScience, Brussels, Belgium and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada; Novartis, Basel, Switzerland: Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Johnston, Iowa, U.S.A.; Plant Biotechnology Institute, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada; University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada; Zeneca Agrochemicals Ltd., Jealott’s Hill, U.K. The organizers of IASPRR 2000 wish to express their gratitude for the generous support received from these sponsors.
