Invited Speakers

Keynote speaker: Brigitte Poppenberger

Tipping the Balance: Brassinosteroids, Epigenetics, and the Growth–Survival Dilemma

In favorable environmental conditions, plant growth is guided by genetically encoded developmental programs that are modulated by environmental inputs to ensure adaptive plasticity. Under abiotic or biotic stress, however, plants must prioritize stress protective reactions over growth, as their activation is energy-demanding. This entails a dynamic reallocation of resources, often requiring active growth repression to ensure survival. The underlying regulatory modes are governed by phytohormones, including the brassinosteroids (BRs), steroids that act as key integrators of growth and stress signaling. Our research investigates the mechanistic basis of growth trade-offs, with a focus on BR-mediated signaling hubs that serve as integration points with stress response pathways. Specifically, we explore how BR signaling modulates thermotolerance and immunity, two stress contexts that inherently limit growth. Particular emphasis is placed on BR-regulated transcription factors, which not only influence gene expression through direct promoter binding but also modulate epigenetic landscapes that govern transcriptional regulation via alternative means. In this talk, I will present recent results on these distinct modes of transcription factor activity and their roles in stress responses in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Silvia Matesanz García

Phenotypic plasticity and adaptive evolution in Mediterranean gypsum endemics: insights into climate change response

Climate change is a major threat to plant populations, especially in the Mediterranean. For gypsophiles—species restricted to gypsum soils—migration is a limited response due to specific edaphic needs, low dispersal, and fragmented distributions. Consequently, in situ processes like adaptive evolution and phenotypic plasticity are essential for their persistence. Future adaptive responses to climate change depend not only on historical evolutionary dynamics but also on the strength of selection and the evolutionary potential of functional traits and their plasticity. Our research investigates: i) the evolutionary potential of key functional traits and their plasticity; ii) whether past selection has shaped population phenotypes and plasticity patterns; and iii) the ability of gypsophiles to express adaptive transgenerational plasticity to drought. Using a quantitative genetics approach, our research shows that gypsophiles exhibit adaptive phenotypic plasticity to drought, sometimes aligned with selection patterns. High genetic variation for plasticity within populations supports their capacity to further evolve adaptive plasticity in response to climate change. This plasticity may have contributed to maintaining high genetic variation, enabling adaptation to contrasting climatic conditions. Populations of several Iberian gypsophiles display similar drought responses, likely shaped by natural selection in heterogeneous environments, and suggesting independent evolution of functional traits and their plasticity. Furthermore, gypsophiles express adaptive transgenerational plasticity to drought, though its extent varies among species. Our findings emphasize that, together, phenotypic plasticity and adaptive evolution (both past and future) play a key role in shaping population responses to changing conditions, particularly in stressful and spatially constrained habitats like gypsum outcrops.

Hannah Schneider

Root Cortical Plasticity for Improved Crop Performance

In Poaceae (grasses), the root cortex exhibits plasticity, developing several anatomical tissues from cortical parenchyma, including root cortical aerenchyma, sclerenchyma, and root cortical senescence. These root tissues are not static; instead, their dynamic formation, influenced by the environment, significantly impacts soil resource acquisition by influencing root placement in resource-rich soil domains, enhancing metabolic efficiency during soil exploration, altering rhizosphere microbiota composition, and modifying radial and axial resource transport. We aimed to identify combinations of cortical tissues that enhance plant growth and stress tolerance. Through a phenotypic screen of wheat root anatomy across a developmental gradient, we observed significant phenotypic variation and plasticity in the formation of both multiseriate cortical sclerenchyma (formed by lignin deposition in cell walls) and root cortical senescence (resulting from programmed cell death of cortical cells). The benefit of multiseriate cortical sclerenchyma for drought tolerance was contingent upon the successive formation of root cortical senescence. This highlights how different tissues in the root cortex, and their plastic responses, can interact to influence stress tolerance and overall plant performance. While promising, integrating these complex and interacting plastic traits into breeding programs presents significant challenges due to their plasticity and complex interactions. Root anatomical tissues and their plasticity present a promising yet underexploited avenue to deliver substantial improvements in crop yield and climate resilience by optimizing water and nutrient uptake

Qin Yu

PlantSeg 2.0 and GoNuclear: Accessible 3D Segmentation of Cells and Nuclei in Microscopy Data

PlantSeg is a widely adopted software for 3D cell segmentation in dense plant tissues, with nearly 300 citations to date. In this talk, I will present recent developments in PlantSeg 2.0, which significantly enhance usability and performance. Key updates include a user-friendly Napari interface, multi-channel image support, integrated proofreading tools, training capabilities, and a one-click pipeline for instance segmentation. Additionally, PlantSeg now supports seamless nuclear segmentation through a newly integrated workflow. I will also introduce GoNuclear, a complementary package offering deep learning models for accurate 3D nuclear segmentation in both plant and animal tissues—even under weak or noisy imaging conditions. Together, these tools provide robust, accessible pipelines for high-quality image analysis across a range of biological systems.

Xin-Min Li

Cell cycle-driven growth reprogramming encodes plant age into leaf morphogenesis

How is time encoded into organ growth and morphogenesis? We address this question by investigating heteroblasty, where leaf development and form are modified with progressing plant age. Combining fate mapping through live-imaging, computational analyses, and genetics, we identify age-dependent changes in cell cycle-associated growth and histogenesis that underpin leaf heteroblasty. In juvenile leaves, cell proliferation competence is rapidly released in a “proliferation burst” coupled with fast growth, whereas, in adult leaves, proliferative growth is sustained for longer, at a slower rate, by the SPL9 transcription factor. SPL9 directly activates CYCD3 genes to maintain cell proliferation and tissue morphogenetic potential in response to inputs from both shoot age and individual leaf maturation along the proximodistal axis. SPL9 also enables the species-specific action of homeobox genes in complex leaf shape evolution. We validate these findings by rational reprogramming of leaf growth and form through targeted expression of SPL9.

Eirini Kaiserli

University of Glasgow

Sabrina Kleeßen

Targenomix GmbH, Potsdam