The 23rd Annual Meeting of the Society was held from July 22nd - 26th 2007 in the central lecture hall of the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany. The meeting was organized by the Department of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, in cooperation with the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker. Jena was selected in 2001 at the Lake Tahoe meeting in order to acknowledge the 10th anniversary (October 2007) of the founding of the Max Planck Institute of Chemical Ecology in Jena.

Click here for the program booklet.

The meeting was one of the largest ISCE meetings so far, with 291 registered attendees from thirty countries, plus a number of local attendees. The high number of students (ca. 100) was particularly encouraging and demonstrated the enormous interest in the field. The meeting had ca. 90 oral presentations, four special lectures, and about 160 posters. Owing to the large number of submitted contributions, parallel sessions had to be held during the last two days. Lectures were generally reduced to 15 min to minimize the parallel sessions. A special workshop on “Statistical Methods for the Analysis of Complex Metabolite Profiles” and a lunch seminar on “Recent Advances in Mass Spectroscopy (LTQ Orbitrap)” complemented the program. Twelve students received prestigious Travel Awards from the society. The best oral- and poster presentations were also honored. Guided tours to the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology were offered to many interested participants on two of the days of the meeting.

The conference was opened by a well-attended lecture by Jacques Pasteels covering a tour de force presentation on the “Evolution of Leaf Beetle defenses”. During the first symposium on “Insect Semiochemicals”, chaired by Wittko Francke and Bill Hansson, 18 lectures were presented covering a broad range of topics from pheromones of spider mites (Stefan Schulz), wasps (Francesca Dani), and other insects (Manfred Ayasse, Konrad Dettner, Ylva Hilbur). This was followed by an in-depth presentation of new insights into the molecular mechanisms of pheromone perception (Jürgen Krieger) and processing within the antennal lobe (Bill Hansson), as well as modes of encoding odor plume dynamics (Hong Lei). The second part, chaired by Stefan Schulz and John Pickett and titled “New Analytical Methods Based on GC(LC)-MS or MALDI-TOF of Semiochemicals” revealed the cutting edge of modern technology (Tetsu Ando, Ales Svatos). The section was finished by the exciting Silverstein-Simeone Award Lecture given by Walter Leal on the “Molecular Basis of Pheromone Reception“.

Thomas Hartmann gave wonderful and comprehensive historical review of the early days of Chemical Ecology, with particular reference to two pioneers of the field who lived and worked in Jena approximately 100 years ago, Ernst Haeckel (coined the term “Ökologie” in 1866) and Ernst Stahl (the first “experimental ecologist“). The lecture will be available in early 2008 as a contribution in a special issue of PNAS, entitled “The Lost Origin of Chemical Ecology in the Late 19th Century”.

The symposium on “Induced Plant Defenses” (chaired by Ian Baldwin and Junji Takabayashi)“ on Tuesday was opened by a fascinating lecture by Linda Walling  showing that whiteflies are able to suppress the biosynthesis of jasmonic acid, which is central for orchestrating the synthesis of defensive metabolites. Other contributions covered early events after herbivory (Massimo Maffei), identification of novel elicitors (Hans Alborn), the molecular basis of the induction processes (Kenji Matsui, Roland Mumm), along with the sophisticated strategies of herbivore-damaged plants using different secondary metabolites in a synergistic fashion to combat herbivores (Anke Stepphun). Volatiles were shown to act as an “Information Highway“ between remote parts of the same plant without the need of a systemically traveling intra-plant signal (Martin Heil). Novel insights into activated defenses of higher fungi and sponges were presented in the second part of this symposium (Peter Spiteller, Carsten Thoms).

The symposium on “Animal Responses to Plant Secondary Metabolites”, chaired by David Heckel and Manfred Ayasse, started on Tuesday afternoon. We learned how fruit odors influence the foraging behavior of bats (Robert Hodgkison) and how floral scents attract oil-bees (Stefan Dötterl). Two important contributions covered transcriptional responses of herbivory against chemical and plant-induced stress (Heiko Vogel, Shai Morin). Claus Tittiger reported on the relation between resin detoxification and pheromone production in bark beetles.

The last block on Tuesday afternoon was reserved for the “Student Travel Awards“, chaired by Angel Guerrero. Twelve students, previously selected by a committee presented their projects in a series of outstanding lectures from many different areas of Chemical Ecology. Two awardees were from USA/Canada, one from Turkey, one from the Czech Republic, one from Hungary, two from the Netherlands, one from Switzerland and four from Germany.

Because of the increasing knowledge on the importance of microbes in organismic interactions, a special symposium on Wednesday was devoted to “Microbial Interactions“, chaired by Axel Brakhage and Leo Eberl. A fascinating opening lecture (Christian Hertweck) demonstrated how a fungus can parasitize rice plants in an alliance with an endosymbiotic bacterium, producing a highly active phytotoxin. Other contributions highlighted the effects of microbial metabolites on plants (Anton Hartmann, Barbara Schellenberg, Birgit Piechulla), or, vice versa, the effect of plant metabolites on microbes (Tofazzal Islam, Doris Engelmeier). The morning session ended with the ISCE General Assembly.

Wednesday afternoon was used for several excursions in Jena and into the surroundings of Jena and Weimar. In the evening, the participants came together in the Volkshaus Jena, a famous building from 1903 that was conceptually initiated as an educational and cultural institution for the public by Ernst Abbe. The program was opened and accompanied by background music from a big band. After dinner Jim Tumlinson honored the late Milt Silverstein. Next, Wittko Francke gave a very entertaining and exciting review of his academic career, scientific achievements and personal interactions with colleagues and friends. This was followed by the official business of the society and a brief presentation of the next ISCE meeting at Penn State, USA. After the presentation the student awards (travel award, best oral- and poster presentation) were presented, before the big band took over allowing many participants to dance.

The last day of the ISCE-meeting started with the Silver Medal Award Lecture by Koji Nakanishi. He presented a rich bouquet of scientific highlights from individual structures to concepts and methods for structure elucidation. The last symposium was devoted to “Evolution and Adaptation“, chaired by Dietrich Ober and Jonathan Gershenzon. It was opened with a talk by Eran Pichersky on how plants evolved the ability to produce so many scent compounds. Other lectures covered adaptations to plant secondary metabolites, such as cardenolides (Susanne Dobler), or chemical defenses in mulberry latex (Kotaro Konno). A passionate presentation by May Berenbaum addressed the coevolution of wild parsnip and parsnip webworms. The conference ended around noon with the wish for all to meet at Penn State University next year.
For interested readers, Wiley-VCH offers a free link to a PDF-file of a conference report written by Georg Pohnert (Jena) entitled: “New Frontiers in Chemical Ecology: Conference Report of the 23rd Annual Meeting of the International Society of Chemical Ecology”(Georg Pohnert.pdf ).

Finally, I wish to thank all sponsors, the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker as co-organizers, and my colleagues from the institute (I. Baldwin, J. Gershenzon, B. Hansson, and D. Heckel) who helped to run the conference so smoothly. In particular, the generous support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waters GmbH and Suterra LLC is gratefully acknowledged. Special thanks are due to the symposium organizers and chair persons who took care of the invited speakers and the program. But overall I am especially indebted to all members of the Department of Bioorganic Chemistry and other members of the institute (IT department), who have performed exceptionally by creating the stimulating scientific atmosphere that made the ISCE meeting in Jena such a successful conference.
 
Wilhelm Boland
ISCE 2007, Meeting Host