Invited Speakers

What the genome does not tell - Divergent evolution of wax biosynthesis in land plants

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

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.

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

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

The presentation will highlight recent advances in PlantSeg 2.0, including its interactive Napari interface, support for multi-channel data, and integrated nuclear segmentation workflows. I will also briefly introduce the GoNuclear package and its models for accurate 3D nuclear segmentation in both plant and animal tissues using weak and noisy signals. Together, these tools enable robust, user-friendly pipelines for biological image analysis across diverse tissue types in light microscopy.