Themes (topic areas):

1. General biology, including aspects such as evolution, ecology, population biology, natural seed banks, the concepts of recalcitrance and orthodoxy in seeds, etc.

2. Desiccation damage particularly in desiccation-sensitive tissues.

3. Developmental aspects of desiccation tolerance.

4. Current concepts of mechanisms conferring desiccation tolerance, including biochemical, biophysical and molecular aspects.

5. Are there limits to desiccation tolerance? - Considerations in terms of water content/s that might be limiting and time of exposure to such contents.

6. Applied aspects. Long-term storage of genetic resources, in either the hydrated or dehydrated state.

7. General. This session is designed to include contributions that do not fit neatly into any of the the themes above.

8. Where to now? We envisage this as a final discussion session, which will examine our current concepts and state of knowledge, and which should generate suggestions concerning future directions of research. We are NOT calling for papers for this session, as we would like it to be spontaneous.

Abstracts: We require the original copy of all abstracts by November 5th, 1999. Please note that for ease of reproduction, faxed copies of your abstract/s are not acceptable. Although it is not essential, if you are able to send your abstract/s, composed in WordPerfect or Microsoft Word on disc (or as an attachment via email to: deswork@biology.und.ac.za) in addition to hard copy, it will greatly facilitate our compiling the Proceedings. Abstracts (for oral presentations and posters) should be about 400 - 480 words (excluding title, author/s and affiliation/s). A 12-point, proportionally-spaced font is preferred, giving approximately 40 lines of text. In no cases should the total abstract exceed ONE A4 page. The top margin should be 1.5 inches (37mm) and one inch (25mm) margins should be set at the bottom, left and right. NO page numbering should be used. Please indicate in the top right-hand corner the Theme number, followed by the description Oral presentation OR Poster, as appropriate.

Publication: We have again taken up Professor Michael Black's tentative offer of publication of papers emanating from the Workshop, in a special issue of Seed Science Research.

Please contact the following to receive more complete information:

Workshop Organizers: Patricia Berjak, Norman Pammenter, Deon Erdey and Claudia Calistru,

Plant Cell Biology Research Unit,
School of Life and Environmental Sciences,
George Campbell Building, 
University of Natal, Durban, 4041,SOUTH AFRICA

Tel: +27-31-260 3197/3190
Fax: +27-31-260 1195/2029

Email: deswork@biology.und.ac.za

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