The 4th International Symposium on Frontiers in Agriculture Proteome Research (FAPR) & 4th Plant Proteomics Symposium in Chinawas held on November 9-11, 2012 in Wuhan, China at Wuhan Botanical Garden of Chinese Academy of Sciences (WBGCAS). This symposium was sponsored by the Asia Oceania Agricultural Proteome Organization (AOPAO) and organized by WBGCAS. More than 150 representatives from nine countries including China, the United States, Germany and Japan took part in this symposium. Professor Shaohua Li, director of WBGCAS and Jie Liu, division chief of Bureau of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, CAS addressed respectively, extending a warm welcome to the delegates.

During this symposium, 25 special academic reports and some poster sessions were set to conduct in-depth communication and discussions on the key issues and latest developments of international Agricultural Proteomics Research and the application of proteomic techniques in agriculture. Through the symposium, experts unanimously proposed that the establishment of proteomics research techniques and data format standards, the proteome database creation and its sharing, the subcellular compartment proteome and dynamically modified proteome research would be the focus of the future study. At the same time, they also raised that proteomics research should be combined with cell biology and molecular genetics, focusing on the internal mechanism of different biological processes, especially the critical issues in the agricultural sciences.