Dear Colleagues

     In the case of one of the extremely thermophilic model organisms, Thermus thermophilus HB8, the three-dimensional structures of more than 20% of their 2,200 proteins have already been determined. In parallel with this, systems-biological researches are now in progress (http://www.thermus.org ; http://www.brc.riken.jp/lab/dna/en/thermus_en.html). Thus, in Thermus thermophilus HB8, approaches to understand the biological processes in this whole organism as one integral system have been elaborated. Every year, about one hundred researchers and young students who are interested in Thermus thermophilus HB8 or such comprehensive approaches used in this organism have participated in the meeting and communicated with each other.

     Many of approaches used in Thermus thermophilus HB8 now became available in other several model organisms, such as yeast, C. elegans, Drosophila, and Arabidopsis. However, each model organism has their own strong and weak points, and often those are complimentary. For example, information about the protein structure is largely limited to Thermus thermophilus HB8. Thus, it should be important that researches using one of these models system exchange information and ideas each other.

     In order to facilitate the communication among the researchers using these model organisms, the 5th Annual Meeting for Whole-Organism Science Society will be held on December 19-20, 2015. We hope all participants enjoy such opportunities that may lead to the beginning of new collaborations.