International Cooperation

International Activities - Collaboration

EMBO | COB Workshop "Plant tropisms"


Organizers	Organizers: Miyo T. Morita (NIBB) Christian Fankhauser (Université de Lausanne, CH) Claus Schwechheimer (Technical University of Munich, DE) Co-Organizer: Kiyoshi Tatematsu (NIBB)
Venue	Okazaki Conference Center, Okazaki, Japan
Date	July 9 – 12, 2024
Link	Official Website　（https://meetings.embo.org/event/24-plant-tropisms）

Poster

【About the Workshop】
Since Charles Darwin’s “The Power of Movement in Plants”, it has become evident that plants use elaborate mechanisms to control their growth in response to environmental cues such as light (phototropism), gravity (gravitropism), or touch (thigmotropism). Essential for tropic growth is the differential distribution of the phytohormone auxin, which regulates differential cell elongation within tissues. With advances in the molecular understanding of tropic growth, this has become an attractive field for biophysicists.

Still much remains to be understood about how stimulus perception leads to tropic growth. In the past years, there have been many new relevant findings, which now need to be brought together to foster interactions between experimenters and disciplines: E.g. new molecular players have been identified (LAZY proteins, AGC1 kinases); new mechanisms of the respective signaling pathways have become apparent (phototropin kinase targets, phosphorylation control of cellular events); previously unknown rapid auxin responses have been observed; structural analyses of auxin transporters have uncovered the mechanisms underlying auxin transport regulation; physicists have successfully modelled tropic growth combining theory and biology.

In our EMBO workshop “Plant Tropisms”, we will bring together biologists and modelers to report on their progress and discuss new findings on tropism regulation.

【Report】
Since Charles Darwin’s “The Power of Movement in Plants”, tropisms, which represent plants’ environmental responses to the environment, have been one of the key issues in plant physiology. With advances in molecular understanding, primarily through studies on model plants, this field has also become attractive for theoretical biologists and biophysicists. The aim of this EMBO | Company of Biologists Workshop was to bring together researchers from around the world working on tropisms to foster interactions across disciplines, and to discuss new insights into plant tropisms.

The 4-day workshop “Plant Tropisms” attracted 120 participants from various regions globally (Europe: 35, U.S.: 2, and Asia: 73 (Japan: 55)). The workshop was conducted as a hybrid event, with 82 onsite participants and 38 online participants. The oral talks were presented by 18 invited speakers (Japan: 5) and 19 selected speakers from the poster abstracts (Japan: 8). 58 (Japan: 29) posters were presented. 68 early career scientists, including 41 graduate students and 27 post-docs and assistant professors, participated, resulting in active international research exchange across generations. In every session, including the group discussion facilitated by three up-and-coming young researchers from China, Israel, and the Czech Republic, active discussions were held. During the discussion, key points raised was the need to consider the gap between laboratory conditions and natural environments (e.g., soil environment). Moreover, the complexity of growth responses resulting from the integration of multiple intrinsic and extrinsic signals in tropisms was emphasized. It was also widely recognized that integrating biological data with growth modeling will be crucial for achieving the next major breakthrough in this research field.

In the post-meeting questionnaire, 67% of participants rated the event as “excellent” and another 31% marked “very good”. In addition, specific comments also recognized the high scientific quality of this workshop. Numerous participants praised this first “Plant Tropisms” workshop was a big success and requested a follow-up meeting in the coming 2-3 years, as we already identified a potential venue and a local organizer. Thus, it is clear that this workshop has led and stimulated the tropism research community.

Organizer: Miyo T. Morita (Division of Plant Environmental Responses, NIBB)

Program

Day 1 \| 9 July 2024
13:00	Registration

13:45-14:00	Opening Remarks
	Miyo T. Morita and Kiyokazu Agata (National Institute for Basic Biology, JP)

Session 1
Chair: Stacey Harmer (University of California, Davis,US)
14:00-14:30	Phototropism: from light gradient formation in a photosensitive tissue to regulated asymmetric growth
	Christian Fankhauser (Université de Lausanne, CH)

14:30-15:00	Type 2C protein phosphatases regulate directional light sensing in Arabidopsis
	John M. Christie (University of Glasgow, UK)

15:00-15:30	Functional analysis of intrinsically disordered regions of NONPHOTOTROPIC HYPOCOTYL3 protein
	Tatsuya Sakai (Niigata University, JP)

15:30-15:45	Characterization of blue light-induced paraheliotropic leaf movements in soy bean
	Shin-ichiro Inoue (Saitama University, JP)

15:45-16:15	Coffee break

Session 2
Chair: Wei Xuan (Nanjing Agricultural University, CN)
16:15-16:45	How plants respond to salt
	Christa Testerink (Wageningen University and Research, NL); Online talk

16:45-17:15	Deciding where to (g)row; Modeling the tug of war between halotropism and gravitropism
	Kirsten ten Tusscher (Utrecht University, NL); Online talk

17:30-19:00	Mixer with snacks

19:00	Transfer to City and hotels (free time for dinner)

Day 2 \| 10 July 2024
9:00	Registration

Session 3
Chair: Hidehiro Fukaki (Kobe University, JP)
9:00-9:30	The dynamics of auxin signaling and response during root gravitropism
	Matyáš Fendrych (Charles University, CZ)

9:30-9:45	Exploring the mechanisms of root bending response to gravity through quantitative analysis of cellular dynamics
	Tatsuaki Goh (Nara Institute of Science and Technology, JP)

9:45-10:15	Molecular mechanism of MIZU-KUSSEI1-mediated root hydrotropism in Arabidopsis
	Yutaka Miyazawa (Yamagata University, JP)

10:15-10:30	Auxin biosynthesis, transport and response directly attenuate hydrotropic bending of roots in the latter stages in Arabidopsis thaliana
	Kotaro Akita (Yamagata University, JP)

10:30-11:00	Coffee break

Session 4
Chair: Keiji Nakajima (Nara Institute of Science and Technology, JP)
11:00-11:30	Lessons from underground: How do roots sense water availability?
	Malcolm J. Bennett (University of Nottingham, UK)

11:30-12:00	Auxin-triggered rapid cellular responses for gravitropic root bending
	Jiří Friml (Institute of Science and Technology Austria, AT)

12:00-13:30	Group Photo, Lunch with Meet the Speakers

Poster session (Odd numbers)
Chair: Kiyoshi Tatematsu (National Institute for Basic Biology, JP)
13:30-14:00	Poster Flash Talks

14:00-15:00	Poster Session

15:00-16:00	Coffee break (Poster session continued)

Session 5
Chair: Hiromasa Shikata (National Institute for Basic Biology, JP)
16:00-16:30	AGC kinases and the power of movement in plants
	Claus Schwechheimer (Technical University of Munich, DE)

16:30-16:45	Systems approaches reveal that ABCB and PIN proteins mediate co-dependent auxin efflux
	Leah R. Band (University of Nottingham, UK); Online talk

16:45-17:00	AI-assisted decoding of condensate assembly in the plant phototropic response
	Prabha Manishankar (The Center for Plant Molecular Biology (ZMBP), GE); Online talk

17:00-17:30	Transport properties of canonical PIN-FORMED proteins and the role of the loop domain in auxin transport and tropisms
	Ulrich Z. Hammes (Technical University of Munich, GE); Online talk

17:30-17:45	Emergence of polar auxin transport regulatory machinery before divergence of land plants
	Satoshi Naramoto (Hokkaido University, JP)

17:45-18:00	Engineering FRET biosensors for direct visualisation of endogenous auxin dynamics
	Max Josse (University of Cambridge, UK)

18:00	Transfer to City and hotels (free time for dinner)

Day 3 \| 11 July 2024
9:00	Registration

Session 6
Chair: Stefan Kepinski (University of Leeds, UK)
9:00-9:30	The physics of gravity sensing by plants: the position sensor hypothesis
	Yoël Forterre (CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, FR)

9:30-10:00	Gravity sensing and signaling mediated by dynamic polarity shift of LZY
	Miyo T. Morita (National Institute for Basic Biology, JP)

10:00-10:15	Exploring the evolutionary process of plant gravitropism by utilizing the basal land plant, Physcomitrium patens
	Kanta Suemitsu (Hokkaido University, JP)

10:15-10:45	Coffee break

Session 7
Chair: Satoshi Naramoto (Hokkaido University, JP)
10:45-11:15	Molecular mechanisms underlying gravity sensing in plants
	Haodong Chen (Tsinghua University, CN)

11:15-11:30	The integration of PIN protein phosphoregulation and LAZY signalling in lateral root gravitropic setpoint angle control
	Stefan Kepinski (University of Leeds, UK)

11:30-12:00	Is that tree weeping or just lazy? A story about pendulous and wandering plum and peach trees.
	Courtney A. Hollender (Michigan State University, US)

12:00-12:15	The molecular mechanism underlying rice root tolerance to ammonium toxicity
	Wei Xuan (Nanjing Agricultural University, CN)

12:15-12:30	The role of polar auxin transport in cell polarity establishment in lateral root primordium formation
	Sanae Kaneta (Osaka University, JP)

12:30-13:45	Lunch with Meet the Speakers

Poster session (Even numbers)
Chair: Kiyoshi Tatematsu (National Institute for Basic Biology, JP)
13:45-14:15	Poster Flash Talks

14:15-15:15	Poster Session

15:15-16:15	Coffee break (Poster session continued)

Session 8
Chair: Yutaka Miyazawa (Yamagata University, JP)
16:15-16:45	Actin-dependent organ straightening in establishing plant posture and its mechanical significance
	Haruko Ueda (Konan University, JP)

16:45-17:00	NEK6 provides tissue-specific growth anisotropy through its actin-dependent polar localization in Arabidopsis thaliana
	Hiroyasu Motose (Okayama University, JP)

17:00-17:15	KIPK AGC1 kinases suppress overbending during negative hypocotyl gravitropism
	Yao Xiao (Guangzhou University, CN); Online talk

17:15-17:30	Actin filaments reorganization in response to auto straightening
	Kinza Khan (University of Clermont Auvergne, FR); Online talk

Group Discussion
Chair: Yasmine Meroz (Tel Aviv University, IL), Matyáš Fendrych (Charles University, CZ), and Haodong Chen (Tsinghua University, CN)
17:30-18:30	Standard in tropism research, big challenges, future of the field, interest in follow up conference, publications

19:00-21:00	Dinner with 1-to-1 discussion (Okazaki New Grand Hotel)

Day 4 \| 12 July 2024
9:00	Registration

Session 9
Chair: Yoël Forterre (CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, FR)
9:00-9:30	Plant tropisms as a window on plant computational processes
	Yasmine Meroz (Tel Aviv University, IL)

9:30-9:45	Twining plants capitalize on circumnutations to assess mechanical properties of candidate support, and initiate a thigmotropic twining response
	Amir Ohad (Tel Aviv University, IL)

9:45-10:00	Molecular mechanism of apical hook development
	Pawan K. Jewaria (National Institute of Plant Genome Research Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, IN)

10:00-10:30	Recent research progress on the novel root tropism to explore nutrients
	Kiyoshi Yamazaki (The University of Tokyo, JP)

10:30-11:00	Coffee break

Session 10
Chair: Christian Fankhauser (Université de Lausanne, CH)
11:00-11:30	Sunflower heliotropism as a model for understanding plant responses to natural environmental cues
	Stacey Harmer (University of California, Davis,US)

11:30-11:45	The clock genes, PRRs, regulate phototropin-mediated blue-light responses in Arabidopsis
	Gian Carlo F. Maliwat (Nara Institute of Science and Technology, JP)

11:45-12:00	Circadian clock regulates root hair elongation in Arabidopsis
	Akane Kubota (Nara Institute of Science and Technology, JP)

12:00-12:10	Closing Remarks
	Christian Fankhauser (Université de Lausanne, CH) and Claus Schwechheimer (Technical University of Munich, DE)

12:10-14:00	Lunch with Meet the Speakers

14:00	Departure

	Optional: NIBB Facility Tour (Okazaki Large Spectrograph)