Auxins and Cytokinins in Plant Development 2005

The International Symposium ‘‘Auxins and Cytokinins in Plant Development 2005’’ (ACPD 2005), held in Prague, Czech Republic, July 7–12, 2005, was well timed to reflect the current enormous progress in research of the two classes of phytohormones. The symposium was a continuation of a long tradition of conferences devoted to plant growth substances organized by the Institute of Experimental Botany of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Five international symposia have already been held in the baroque chateau at Liblice near Prague, and the sixth and last one, ‘‘Auxins and Cytokinins in Plant Development 1999’’ was held in Prague itself. The ACPD 2005 meeting provided a platform for discussions on recent achievements and future directions in and prospects for research on the two hormones for controlling plant development. The meeting fulfilled expectations and highlighted the very recent advances in molecular biology, biochemistry, and physiology of both phytohormones, as well as some aspects of their applications in biotechnology. The scientific program consisted of two opening lectures and seven sessions, which always included both hormones: (1) Biosynthesis and metabolism, (2) Transport, (3) Signaling, (4) Pattern formation and development, (5) Auxin-cytokinin crosstalk and interaction with other hormones, (6) Responses to environment, and (7) Novel methods. The interplay of these processes during plant development is shown in Figure 1. The conference attracted 180 participants from 28 countries in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Abstracts of oral and poster presentations were published in Biologia Plantarum 49 (Suppl.) 2005 (and are also available on the Web at http://acpd. cas.cz). A comparison between the proportion of contributions to the topics selected for the 1999 conference with that in 2005 revealed that most of the topics selected in 2005 received even attention by the participants, reflecting the attractive program of the meeting (Figure 2). Most noticeable was the increase in contributions in the transport session in 2005 compared to 1999. In the first plenary lecture which he dedicated to Prof. Milan Kutacek, Athanasios Theologis (Plant Gene Expression Center, Albany, NY, USA) focused on the native auxin, indole-3-acetic acid, as a ‘‘simple *Authors are listed alphabetically Received 17 October 2005; accepted 18 October 2005; Online publication 28 February 2006 *Corresponding author ; e-mail: eva.zazim@ueb.cas.cz J Plant Growth Regul (2006) 25:89–97 DOI: 10.1007/s00344-005-0120-0