Plasmodesmata 2010: plasmodesmata down under. Conference report on plasmodesmata 2010, Sydney, Australia

More than 60 attendees from more than a dozen countries attended the International Plasmodesmata Meeting (Plasmodesmata 2010) held in Sydney, Australia. The structure of plasmodesmata continued to attract interest, with particular focus on how technological progress is advancing our ability to identify and characterise proteins associated with plasmodesmata. Also of major research interest was the movement of proteins and RNAs through plasmodesmata and how this is controlled by host chaperones, cytoskeletal elements and callose. There was also much new information on viral movement through plasmodesmata, with a focus on the ways that viral movement proteins interact with host cell components to modify plasmodesmata. The conference, as a whole, provided a stimulating forum for the discussion of future directions in this expanding field.