This proposal requests partial funding for the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology (FASEB) conference entitled "Post- Transcriptional Control of Gene Expression: Effectors of mRNA Decay". This conference will be held July 6-11, 2002 in Tucson, Arizona. MRNA decay plays a major role in determining the level at which genes are expressed. The advent of microarrays has firmly established two critical concepts: (1) the half-lives of different mRNAs differ in ways that correlate with mRNA function, and (2) the half-lives of individual mRNAs vary in response to metabolic conditions that relate to mRNA function. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms of mRNA degradation becomes very important to understanding how genes are regulated. This understanding becomes all the more valuable considering the many cases where manipulation of mRNA degradation can be used as means of disease therapy. Participants will include those studying mRNA decay in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, making this meeting unique from all others in offering all individuals who study mRNA decay a chance to exchange ideas. There are 36 distinguished invited speakers, 10 of whom are women and 7 of whom are outstanding scientists at the level of Assistant Professor or less. The goal of the meeting is to gather approximately 120 individuals in a conference environment that allows the free flow in information via a keynote talk, platform presentations, poster presentations, round-table discussions and workshops. An Abstract Booklet will be created to provide the abstracts and mailing/email addresses of all participants as a supplementary way to exchange information. Topics to be covered include the recent advances in understanding multifunctional nucleases of prokaryotes and eukaryotes, how mRNA localization and mRNA translation affect mRNA half-lives, cis-acting sequences and trans-acting effectors of mRNA half-lives, and the use of RNA as a tool and target for drug design.