The Fourth Okazaki Biology Conference: "Terra Microbiology 2"   Date: September 10 (Sun) - 15 (Fri), 2006 Venue: National Institute for Basic Biology (Okazaki, Aichi)     Organizers: Kenji Kato (Shizuoka Univ., Japan) Daniel J. Arp (Oregon State Univ., USA) Secretary: Yuichi Suwa (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan)   Steering committee members (alphabetical order): J. Kato (Hiroshima Univ., Japan), Y. Kawarabayasi (AIST, Japan), S. Kjelleberg (Univ. New South Wales, Australia), Y. Kuga (Shinshu Univ., Japan), K. Minamisawa (Tohoku Univ., Japan), N. Nomura (Tsukuba Univ., Japan), M. Ohmori (Saitama Univ., Japan), H. Ohta (Ibaraki Univ., Japan), S. Suzuki (Ehime Univ., Japan), J. Tiedje (Michigan State Univ., USA), M. Wada (Univ. Tokyo, Japan), I. Yoshinaga (Kyoto Univ., Japan).   Style of the conference: Semi-Closed. Confidentiality of novel ideas opened in the conference is kept among participants.   Conference Program   The fourth Okazaki Biological Conference: Terra Microbiology 2 was held from September 10 to 15 at Okazaki Conference Center inviting 54 participants from US(11), UK(3), Swiss(2), the Netherlands(2), Australia(2), Singapore(2), Germany(1), China(1), New Zealand(1) and Japan(29). This conference was organized based on the policy of OBC following the OBC2, Terra Microbiology. Inspired by the achievements of the first "Terra Microbiology", the "Terra Microbiology 2" was organized intending to embody the results of conference more apparently by initiating several cooperative research programs. A fast developing field of the research on nitrogen metabolism from both metabolic sequence and genome analysis are focused in this conference as Session 1. Session 2 and Session 3 were arranged to develop the discussion from other important aspects of microbial ecology. Two keynote lectures, 30 oral presentations and 27 poster presentations were carried out with each intensive discussion. To discuss the development of meta-genomics was one of the centered topics throughout the conference.   Scientific sessions and conveners: (Summary of Sessions) Session 1: Bio-geochemical cycling and microbial functions Kiwamu Minamisawa (Tohoku Univ., Japan) Dan Arp (Oregon State Univ., USA) Session 2: Gene hopping among microbes Satoru Suzuki (Ehime Univ., Japan) James Tiedje (Michigan State Univ., USA) Session 3: Bacterial cross talk Nobuhiko Nomura (Tsukuba Univ., Japan) Staffan Kjelleberg (Univ. New South Wales, Australia) Jun-ichi Kato (Hiroshima Univ., Japan) Keynote Lecturers Masayuki Ohmori (Saitama Univ., Japan) James Tiedje (Michigan State Univ., USA)      Oral session   Oral session   Poster session   Poster session   Sharing a champagne toast at the get-together   Banquet with Shakuhachi (Bamboo flute) performance   Participants of OBC4