Keynote Speakers

Barbara Halkier

Center for Dynamic Molecular Interactions, University of Copenhagen (Denmark)

Barbara Ann Halkier’s research focuses on basic and applied aspects of plant secondary metabolites, particularly glucosinolates (characteristic of plants of the Brassicales order). Her research includes mechanistic understanding of biosynthetic pathways and transport processes. She has contributed substantially to elucidation of the glucosinolate biosynthetic pathways and bioengineered the production of these phytochemicals in plants (for disease resistance) and in microorganisms (for health-promoting natural products). Her group pioneered transport engineering as a new technology to remove anti-nutritional factors from edible parts of plants. After identification of the first glucosinolate transporter in Arabidopsis, her group found that a double mutant of gtr1 and its closest relative gtr2 produced seeds with low levels of glucosinolates. Recently, her group identified the first glucosinolate exporter, and an Arabidopsis mutant of this exporter has 80% reduction of glucosinolates. Along with the wish to contribute to the green transition, the rapeseed press cake has underexploited potential as plant-based protein food for human consumption. By combining biosynthesis and transport engineering her discoveries are currently being translated from Arabidopsis model plant to the Brassica crops to improve seed quality by removing anti-nutritional glucosinolates from the seeds.

Eve-Lyn Hinckley

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder (USA)

Eve-Lyn Hinckley’s research focuses on studying the elements that underlie all life on Earth, with an emphasis on how they are changed by human activities and how those changes feed back to affect human welfare. Dr. Hinckley earned her Ph.D. in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford University, and B.A. in Environmental Studies from Middlebury College. Her research on modern changes to the global sulfur (S) cycle is supported by multiple funding agencies, including the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the National Geographic Society. Dr. Hinckley has developed methods using stable and radioisotopes to quantify rates of S transformations, as well as to follow the fates of applied S in agricultural systems and the consequences of excess S in the environment.

Andreas Meyer

Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation, University of Bonn (Germany)

The main research interest of Andreas Meyer is how plants adapt to adverse conditions, in particular the questions, what mechanisms allow plants to maintain cellular redox homeostasis under stress and how thiol-based redox signalling in plants contributes to specific and meaningful communication within cells and between organs. In addition to key functions in the detoxification of xenobiotics and heavy metals, the tripeptide glutathione is essential for maintaining redox homeostasis in all subcellular compartments except the vacuole. Together with dithiol glutaredoxins, it is also part of redox-dependent signalling mechanisms. To study glutathione metabolism and redox signalling, we develop and apply genetically encoded biosensors for dynamic and compartment-specific recording of physiological parameters including the glutathione redox potential in living cells. Other topics of interest include oxidative protein folding, sulfur metabolism and assembly, transfer and turnover of iron-sulfur clusters.

Fang-Jie Zhao

Nanjing Agricultural University (China)

Research interests of the Zhao lab include the biogeochemistry of sulfur and trace elements in soil-plant systems, molecular mechanisms of trace element uptake and detoxification in plants, as well as the biofortification of essential micronutrients.

Invited Speakers

Cecilia Gotor

Institute of Plant Biochemistry and Photosynthesis, CSIC-US (Spain)

My initial studies on the cysteine biosynthesis pathway in plants were the starting point for current research focused on sulﬁde-mediated intracellular signaling. My main interest is determining the function of sulﬁde as a signaling molecule in the regulation of essential processes, such as adaptation to abiotic stress and autophagy. In particular, I delve into the action mechanism of sulﬁde, its interplay with other signaling molecules in the regulation of these processes, or the possible correlation between the origin of sulﬁde in the cell and the regulated process. In addition, I study the duality of sulﬁde as a nutrient and as a regulator, transferring the knowledge generated in model plants to plants of agronomic interest.

Masami Hirai

RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (Japan)

Metabolism is the basis of life and is finely regulated. Plant metabolism and its regulation are complicated, because plants produce primary metabolites as well as diverse specialized metabolites. Since ancient times, humans have used plant metabolites for nutrients, medicine, flavors, etc. We aim to understand the mechanisms and physiology of plant metabolism and improve plant productivity of useful metabolites based on our findings. We identify genes involved in biosynthesis/degradation of amino acids and their derivative specialized metabolites and elucidate regulatory mechanism. We also develop metabolomics techniques and exploit mathematical modelling and machine learning for data mining from metabolome data.

Stanislav Kopriva

Institute for Plant Sciences, University of Cologne (Germany)

Stan Kopriva´s research aim is to understand how plants integrate the uptake and utilization of key mineral nutrients with their needs, demand, and changes in environment and what is the role of micro-organisms in plant nutrition. The research focuses on three areas: (1) molecular mechanisms of sulfur homeostasis and its integration in general plant metabolism; (2) alterations in mineral nutrition between C3 and C4 plants; and (3) metabolic signals in plant microbe interactions and their contribution to plant nutrition.

David Mendoza-Cozatl

University of Missouri, Division of Plant Sciences (USA)

The Mendoza lab at the University of Missouri (Mizzou) focuses on understanding how plants sense, acquire, and allocate nutrients from the environment. Currently there are thousands of genes with unknown function in plants, even in the model plant Arabidopsis, and the main goal of our lab is the identification of genes critical for nutrient uptake, growth, and fitness. Our multidisciplinary approach includes high-throughput phenomics, genomics, and ionomics in a time-dependent manner and at cell-specific resolution. Of particular interest to our lab is the interaction between iron and sulfur regulatory networks. Iron (Fe) and sulfur (S) are at the core of plant bioenergetics and while some of the mechanisms regulating Fe uptake are well-known, regulation of S uptake and assimilation is less known and even less so are the mechanisms behind the Fe/S crosstalk. Our targeted and untargeted whole-genome interactome approaches have identified potential players regulating both Fe and S homeostasis at the local and systemic level and our lab is actively working on characterizing these transcriptional regulators.

Hatem Rouached

The Plant Resilience Institute, MSU (USA)

Hatem Rouached views plant nutrition as an integrated system, rather than focusing on individual nutrients in isolation. He believes that the movement and regulation of essential nutrients such as phosphorus, sulfur, iron, and zinc are part of a complex, interconnected network within the plant, where various molecular pathways work together to maintain optimal nutrient balance and overall plant health. Rouached's approach emphasizes the synergy between nutrient uptake, transport, and storage processes, and how these systems are influenced by environmental factors, nutrient deficiencies, and plant signaling mechanisms. By treating plant nutrition as a system, his research aims to enhance nutrient use efficiency and improve plant resilience, ultimately leading to crops with higher nutritional value and better tolerance to environmental stress. This holistic perspective is crucial for developing crops that can more effectively address global food security and nutritional challenges.

Markus Schwarzländer

Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, University of Münster (Germany)

The research of Markus Schwarzländer and his team aims to illuminate how redox and energy metabolism integrate environmental and developmental cues to optimize plant performance. The lab employs advanced in vivo monitoring approaches making use of genetically encoded biosensors, to study dynamic redox regulation of Cys switches as well as redox cofactors such as NAD and NADP, but also ion fluxes, and metabolite dynamics at subcellular resolution.

Agnieszka Sirko

Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Warsaw (Poland)

Nutrient deficiencies are a growing challenge, reducing crop productivity and quality. Effective stress response and rapid recovery are essential for plant survival in the face of climate change. My research interests have evolved from sulfur (S) metabolism and the regulation of plant responses to S starvation to the role of selective autophagy in stress adaptation and its interaction with abscisic acid (ABA) and other hormones. We explore novel regulators of stress responses and their crosstalk with phytohormones and autophagy by examining transcriptomic, metabolomic, and proteomic changes during stress, adaptation, and recovery. This work aims to improve our understanding of how plants adapt to stress. Key research areas include: transcriptional responses to S starvation, functions and interactome of LSU proteins, LSU-NBR1 interactions and their mutual modulation, the role of selective autophagy in stress responses and recovery.