Ecology, Analytics, Genomics, Sensory Perception and Linguistics

The 2009 Gordon Conference on Floral and Vegetative Volatiles will bring together researchers to explore the rapid advances in genomics, analytics and sensory perception of plant volatiles. Genomic tools have revolutionized most of biology and the biochemistry and cell biology of scent production is no exception. Dramatic advances in instrumentation, particularly in ambient pressure mass spectrometry have allowed for the detection and identification of trace amounts of volatiles and image their release in real time. From this work, it has become clear than plants emit an amazing array of such compounds and the ever expanding genomic tool box is helping plant biologists understand how they are synthesized and released, the signaling cascades that elicit their releases and their evolution. Equally dramatic has been the pace of discovery in how these volatiles are perceived and the *sensory systems* in animals (including humans) by which this occurs and this will be a new focus for the conference. The identification of odor receptors and their genetic variability in the recipients of these volatiles has generated new paradigms for their function. Lastly, as the paucity of words in human speech to describe the sensory experience of volatile perception underscores, researchers in this field are confronted with a major challenge in how to translate their research to a lay public. To stimulate discussion in this translational component, linguists who work with movie producers, enologists, food critics, to translate the human experience of volatile perception, will help researchers working in the field overcome the linguistic challenges.