German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG)

In 2022 DBG has awarded 15 early career plant scientists and their outstanding master theses. The diverse range of topics included research results that were published in a Nature article. The many topics covered: nickel resistance in a Noccaea caerulescens infecting pathogene, genetic markers to identify the alga Pantocsekiella, ER-tonoplast membrane contact sites, whether some endemic Euphorbia species resulted from polyploidisation, Glyoxalase I among Arabidopsis thaliana ecotypes, how Galium wirtgenii adapts to restored meadows, how heat and nitrogen amounts influence growth and development of potato plants, invention of an in vivo NADH/NAD+-monitoring system in pattern-triggered immune response, how N-deficiency in Helianthus annuus induces UV-screening compounds, a new electro-physiologic method to characterize the PIN-FORMED8 transport protein, how stomatal morphology impacts gas exchange, transcriptional control of photosynthetic gene expression, how lipids regulate the membrane-actin interface in polar growing plant cells, antibacterial gene silencing approaches, as well as mesofauna biodiversity in tree cavity habitats.
The DBG warmly congratulates the successful award winners and thanks the contact persons who managed the selection process at the individual universities and handed over the certificates.

Names of the awardees and contents of awarded theses

Since the first of January, Prof. Dr. Edgar Peiter takes over his office as member of our extended board from Prof. Dr. Andreas Meyer. Peiter, Professor of Plant Nutrition at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, was elected unanimously during the last Botanik-Tagung in Bonn in August and will organize our upcoming Botanik-Tagung, International Conference of the German Society for Plant Sciences, in Halle, Germany, 2024. All other members of our executive and extended board had been confirmed in their positions during our general assembly.

Read more details on the election

Today we are proud to present our redesigned logo that kept some elements and can easily be shortened, displayed, printed and also exists in an icon variant. It displays a leaf. Although not all plants produce leaves, our leaf directs deeply into processes and interactions in plants and thus summarizes the scientific interest that all our members share.
Following colour theory, we kept the green colour to symbolize photosynthesis as well as flourishing and fresh green leaves in spring. The green already was in our logo and online appearances for many years. It is combined with the blue hue, which was the second colour on our website since 2006 and was chosen to display our trustworthiness. The new Roboto Slab font is more modern than the formerly used Georgia. We kept serifs to embrace our long tradition, since DBG - founded in 1882 - is one of the oldest scientific societies for plant sciences in the world.
Our new logo was first presented to almost 100 of our members attending our general assembly at the Botanik-Tagung in Bonn this summer.

If you are one of DBG's members you can log into our Intranet and download the images separately for print and online purposes (Log-In required).

Sorry, in German only

Die erste Konferenz der ISPA (International Society for Plant Anaerobiosis) in Deutschland (ISPA22) thematisierte im September Flooding and hypoxia in plants, ein im Klimawandel immer wichtiger werdendes Thema. Die Tagung, an der zahlreiche Forschende aus dem Ausland teilnahmen, war von mehreren Forschenden im Hybridformat organisiert worden. Hauptorganisatorin Professorin Dr. Angelika Mustroph berichtet über die spannendsten Vorträge – u.a. eines Nobelpreisträgers –, die verliehenen Poster-Preise und das Fazit der Teilnehmenden, zu welchen Themen in Zukunft mehr wissenschaftliche Analysen notwendig sind.

End of August our German Society for Plant Sciences held its conference at the University of Bonn to cover the broad range of plant science topics, to support exchange among the more than 600 participating scientists, bring together established and early career researchers, and to provide opportunities for cooperation and networking. In his report, conference chair Professor Andreas Meyer not only mentions the impressive history of plant sciences at the University of Bonn but also gives an overview about the scientific topics at the conference, the awards given and informs about the answers to a quiz the local organizers invented for this conference.

Our former presidents, Professor Ulf-Ingo Flügge and Professor Karl-Josef Dietz, were awarded the Simon Schwendener Medal at our Botanik-Tagung, International Conference of the German Society for Plant Sciences, in Bonn, Germany. In laudatory speeches the speakers pointed out the scientific achievements of the two, recognized all over the world. In the name of all of our members they warmly thanked our former presidents Flügge and Dietz for leading and developing our German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG). Professor Flügge not only has published many scientific papers but also evolved our Society in the years 2003 to 2011, as laudatory speaker and current president Professor Andreas Weber pointed out in his laudatory speech. Professor Dietz continuously worked in scientific committees and scientific societies, has published more than 330 scientific papers – many of them highly cited – and also has developed our society internationally in the years 2012 until 2020, as Professor Andreas Meyer summarized in his laudatory speech.

See also other images

Our intranet now provides the more than 630 images taken at our Botanik-Tagung International Conference. Many thanks to all photographers.

see our intranet (Log-In for members only)

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Beinahe 150 Forschende tauschten sich unter anderem zur Funktionsweise der Leitgewebe von Pflanzen aus, die in den sich häufenden Dürrejahren, massiven Baumsterbephasen und Ernteausfällen immer mehr an Bedeutung gewinnen. Die Hauptorganisatoren, Prof. Dr. Bernhard Schuldt und Dr. Roman Link, berichten nicht nur über die Themenschwerpunkte der dreitägigen Tagung, sondern auch in welche Richtung sich der Fokus der Forschung in Zeiten des Klimawandels entwickelt, vor allem bei Waldökosystemen aber auch Agrarprodukten, und welche Methoden und Herangehensweisen derzeit im Forschungsfokus stehen.

Unanimously the general assembly agreed that three of us will become honorary members of our German Society of Plant Sciences (DBG) in Bonn, Germany, on August 31^st.  

• Professor Birgit Piechulla is well known as a leading plant bio chemist with a focus on volatile secondary metabolites of plant and bacteria and on circadian rhythms with many highly cited scientific papers and a textbook that is translated into many languages, as Professor Ivo Feussner points out in his laudatory speech (pdf) in Bonn. The plant science community also knows her as organizer of many conferences – for example our last Botanikertagung 2019 in Rostock – and her commitment in scientific committees has shaped a lot in the plant sciences.
• PD Dr. Klaus-J. Appenroth (Jena) will not only become a honorary member because of his tireless commitment in researching and cultivating duck weeds – a plant group that is about to become a new cultivated plant for a variety of usages – but also for his many years being the treasurer of our society. This are only a few of the achievements of Appenroth that are summarized in the laudatory text written by Professor Ingo Schubert (pdf) and presented by Professor Jutta Ludwig-Müller at our member assembly.
• Professor Widmar Tanner not only discovered the first plant sugar transporter but also made several important discoveries on the glucose uptake and transport systems, about metabolite fluxes as well as in related fields of plant cell physiology. Moreover, he initiated two independent Collaborative Research Centers (Sonderforschungsbereiche, SFB). Not only his scientific achievements but also his work in the plant science community makes him a deserved honorary member of our society, as our president Professor Andreas Weber reported in Bonn from the laudatory text that was written by Professor Ekkehard Neuhaus (pdf).

From the more than 300 displayed scientific posters presented at Botanik-Tagung 2022, International Conference of the German Society for Plant Sciences, participants and a jury selected the ten best posters in a two-step selection procedure. Votes from participants were given priority over committee votes. The early career plant scientists were rewarded for their scientific work presented on the respective posters and received an endowment of 140 Euros reach, since our German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG) has turned 140 this year.

Awarded early career scientists and the titles of the presented posters (pdf file)

Prof. Dr. Edgar Peiter (Halle) was newly elected as member of the Extended Board. Unanimously the general assembly voted for the plant physiologist during this year’s meeting in Bonn, Germany, on August 31^st. Our president Professor Andreas Weber (Düsseldorf), our treasurer, Professor Raimund Tenhaken (Salzburg), our General Secretary Professor Caroline Müller (Bielefeld), as well as our Secretary Dr. Thomas Janßen (Berlin) have been confirmed in the Executive Board in the election. Also Professor Dr. Iris Finkemeier (Münster) was re-elected by the participants. The board members will take their offices in January next year according to our statutes.

In his opening speech of the international conference our DBG president, Professor Andreas Weber, reminded the audience that studying and working with plants gives hope to solve some of the major problems humans are facing.  Plant sciences not only help to achieve some of the UN-sustainable development goals. They also can help to sequester a sufficiently large amount of atmospheric carbon into biomass, to reduce the CO₂ amount in the atmosphere, since reaching zero emissions will not be enough to stop further global warming. Weber also named major challenges and some of the questions to be addressed in plant sciences for our sustainable future. Our president encouraged conference participants to use the conference to establish interdisciplinary networks to formulate and address these questions.

Read his whole speech

Welche Aufgabe Old Yellow Enzymes eigentlich im Organismus haben, obwohl sie vor vielen Jahren entdeckt und schon lange biotechnologische genutzt wurden, wie ein Proteinsuperkomplex der Atmungskette auf Atomabstand genau aufgedröselt wurde, wie Landwirtschaft Unkraut schafft und unter welchen Bedingungen väterliche Chloroplasten vererbt werden, sind Themen unserer Forschungsnachrichten.
Unsere Sektionen freuen sich auf die diesjährigen Tagungen, mit denen sie auch Forschenden im frühen Karrierestadium ein exzellentes Podium für Forschungsergebnisse bieten.
Our Sections are looking forward to their respective meetings this year, at which they provide an excellent opportunity to showcase research results especially for early career scientists. And the Editors of our journal Plant Biology recommend two reviews: how male fertility is influenced via the anther tapetum in rice and whether smoke- released seed dormancy in grass species is influenced by climate, fire regime or the photosynthetic pathway.

zum 64. Newsletter (LogIn required)

Eröffent mit dem neuen Logo der DBG präsentiert der Newsletter Forschungsnachrichten: Wie eine neu entdeckte Zellgruppe Manganmengen misst, welches Protein diesen Nährstoff an die Verbrauchsorte steuert und welche zwei Schlüsselproteine die Photosynthese an wechselndes Licht anpassen. Unsere DBG nennt die ersten ausgezeichneten Master-Arbeiten, wünscht sich Bewerbungen für einen neuen Eduard Strasburger-Hot-Topic-Workshop und informiert zu den unter ihrem Dach vereinten Sektionen.
Our Newsletter not only opens with our new logo (more on this below) but also informs about the first awarded master theses and recommends the special issue of our journal Plant Biology that comprises results and papers about responses of European forests to global change-type droughts.

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Wie Schädlinge zu Bestäubern wurden, mit welchem Trick gewünschte Eigenschaften vererbt werden können und was Inselpflanzen verholzen lässt, sind Themen in unseren Forschungsnachrichten.
Unsere DBG blickt zurück auf die Botanik-Tagung in Bonn, nennt ihre neuen Ehrenmitglieder und Medaillen-Träger, berichtet von der Mitgliederversammlung mit Präsidiumswahl und hat die Impressionen der Tagung in einem Bericht und in mehr als 300 Bildern zusammengetragen. Eine unserer Sektionen hat eine neue Sprecherin gewählt, während sich andere bereits auf ihre Konferenzen kommendes Jahr vorbereiten.
Our DBG looks back to our recent conference, informs about our newly elected honorary members, medal winners, and board members. We also offer a report about our conference and present the more than 300 images taken at the Meeting of our German Society for Plant Sciences (Botanik-Tagung) in Bonn. 
Editors and Editor in Chief of our journal Plant Biology, Professor Christiane Werner, recommend three reviews about a roadmap to improve photosynthetic efficiency in staple crops, how arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi affect accumulation of secondary metabolites of TCM plants, and how selenium improves heavy metal stress tolerance in plants. They also present the risen impact factor of our journal and the new viewpoint editor.

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Programme Updates: https://www.botanik-tagung.de/fileadmin/congress/media/botaniker2022/pdf/Botanik_2022_Corrigendum.pdf

You can still register for the Botanik-Tagung, International Conference of our German Society for Plant Sciences 2022, #BT2022DBG: https://www.botanik-tagung.de/registrierung-abstracts/registration  

Since the COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet, the conference chair and the organisers of our Botanik-Tagung, ask you to comply with the regulations that are provided in order to hold a safe conference together  
https://www.botanik-tagung.de/general-informationen/hygiene-measures

Scientific Programme: https://www.botanik-tagung.de/programm/scientific-programme

Eine online-Befragung unter Pflanzenwissenschaftler*innen in Deutschland zeigt großen Bedarf an Freilandstudien mit gentechnisch veränderten Pflanzen. Nur mit Studien im Freiland lassen sich aussagekräftige Ergebnisse z.B. zur Ertragsbildung sowie Klima- und Stresstoleranz gewinnen. Vor gezielter Zerstörung gesicherte Freilandflächen (sog. Protected Sites) sind ein Lösungsansatz. Für 83 Prozent der Teilnehmer*innen an der Umfrage eröffnen sich damit neue Forschungsperspektiven. Die Einrichtung solcher zerstörungssicheren Freilandflächen kann die internationale Konkurrenzsituation der Pflanzenwissenschaften in Deutschland grundlegend verbessern. Dies ist wichtig, weil derzeit auch genomeditierte Pflanzen unter die Regularien des Gentechnikgesetzes fallen. Deshalb besteht dringender Handlungsbedarf  ̶̶  unabhängig von einer zukünftigen, an den Stand wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnis angepassten Neuregulierung genomeditierter Pflanzen in der EU.

zu den Ergebnissen und Abbildungen

Sorry, some of the contents are in German only

Wie Algen einst das Leben auf dem Land für uns alle eroberten, wie Eindringlinge die Abbaumaschinerie ausschalten und welches Protein eine Schlüsselrolle für die Lebensdauer anderer Proteine einnimmt, steht in den Forschungsnachrichten.

DBG's boeard and the conference chair are looking forward to meet you in Bonn at our Botanik-Tagung, International Conference of the German Society for Plant Sciences.
The Editors and Editor in Chief of our journal Plant Biology, Professor Christiane Werner, recommend two reviews about the revision of positive interactions in mixed forests under drought and the roles of glutamine synthetase isoenzymes in Arabidopsis thaliana which differ from other plants.

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Sorry, only some parts are provided in English, such as an invitation to provide your expertise for the EU, an update for our internatinal conference and suggested readings in Plant Biology.

Welche Pflanzen dem Menschen bei der Bewältigung der Klimakrise helfen können, wieviel früher eigentlich Frühblüher blühen, und wie nur ein Pflanzengen die Artenvielfalt eines ganzen Mini-Ökosystems beeinflusst, sind Ergebnisse unserer Forschungsnachrichten.  
Bei welchen beiden Konsultationen Ihre Expertise gefragt ist. Sowie ein Update zu unserer International Conference of the German Society for Plant Sciences (Botanik-Tagung) mit Mitgliederversammlung. Tagungsberichte und Veranstaltungshinweise runden unseren Newsletter ab.

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Sorry, some of the contents are in German only

Welcher Trick das Kartoffelgenom zu entschlüsseln half, was eine weiterentwickelte Genschere in Pflanzen nun ermöglicht, wie Pflanzen Polyspermie unterbinden und warum die Venusfliegenfalle vielleicht bald der Arzneimittelforschung dienen könnte, sind Themen in den Forschungsnachrichten.  
Das Präsidium der DBG lädt herzlich zur Mitbestimmung und Wahl bei unserer nächsten Mitgliederversammlung in Bonn. Es freut sich nicht nur über die Zusagen der acht Plenary Speaker zu unserer Botanik-Tagung, sondern auch auf die Diskussionen und den fachlichen Austausch in den mehr als 20 Sessions über aktuelle Themen der Pflanzenforschung in Bonn. Unser Präsident regt an, in Bonn auch deshalb zusammen zu kommen, um Förderquellen für die Forschung zu erschließen, die die interne Konkurrenz in den Fachgebieten nicht noch weiter verschärfen. Nur noch rund zwei Wochen hat Zeit, wer seinem Nachwuchs einen unserer Wissenschaftspreise und einen Auftritt in der Forschungs-Community angedeihen lassen möchte. Die European Plant Science Organisation assistiert, um Ukrainische Pflanzenforschende mit Laboren in ganz Europa zusammen zu bringen.

Editors and Editor in Chief, Professor Christiane Werner of our journal Plant Biology recommend

•     a viewpoint about the right time to analyse seed viability during an experiment
•     a research paper on appropriate flammability parameters to include in wildfire models in Australian fire-prone woodlands
•     a review on the expression and roles of the GRAS gene family in plant growth, signal transduction, biotic and abiotic stress resistance and symbiosis formation.

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The European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) published a statement against the war and support for scientists. EPSO, in which our DBG is an associate, wants to contribute to building a better Europe and world by an expanding list to facilitate refugee scientists from Ukraine in finding a host lab.

Read EPSO’s statement, in which they are referring to international law (Geneva Convention and UN convention) here:
https://epsoweb.org/epso/scientists-contributing-to-building-a-better-europe-and-world-stop-war-in-ukraine-offer-support-to-ukrainian-scientists/2022/02/28/

If you would like to add a new lab to this list, use their continuously updated Google-form: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeRGe5Da_b6GGyC6VT7CLGViGs06SzeuX7wRKpC4K5tnvlhgg/viewform?usp%3Dsf_link__;!!C5qS4YX3!XnBWdlPAURTnwcPm57vNyo8-fN22nGHUvvPxL_RNPg4FR-40RmUPbMQ0l5qxmDHB$&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1646826005305500&usg=AOvVaw24bwgzVzsQ060tb-Fs3sTi

If you are looking for a labs, use their continuously updated Google list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HqTKukfJGpmowQnSh4CoFn3T6HXcNS1T1pK-Xx9CknQ/edit#gid=320641758

132 European research institutes and science associations – with DBG being one of them - strongly recommend to the European Council, European Parliament and the European Commission to revise the existing directive for precision breeding, also known as genome editing. This is not only important for recovery from the COVID-19 crisis but also since genome-editing offers many solutions for a fast, relatively simple and much more directed way to create resilience to climate change compared to previous breeding techniques. Moreover the breeding of plants that are less dependent on fertilizers and pesticides is more efficient. Use of these methods preserves natural resources of our planet and supports to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations as well as the Green Deal of the EU. The European Sustainable Agriculture through Genome Editing (EU-SAGE) Network, under which the institutions named above are unified, recommends the European Commission to endorse this message for the benefit and welfare of all EU citizens and to adapt the current regulations to use genome-editing for crop and plant breeding to recent scientific results. In its Open Statement the EU-SAGE network cites scientific studies that demonstrate the successful creation of genome-edited plants with resilience to climate change and resistance against pests and diseases and therefore higher yields and revenues. Other studies have proven to reduce the dependency on pesticides by improving resistance against diseases in rice, wine, wheat, and grapefruit. In addition precision breeding accelerates the introduction of healthy traits into vegetables and fruits, as studies have shown.

Read EU-SAGE's whole open statement (pdf)

Sorry, in German only

Gleich drei Publikationen belegen (mindestens) eine Doppelrolle von Proteinen und zeigen eindrucksvoll, wie komplex Pflanzen sind. In diesen schwierigen Zeiten wurden erfreulich viele hochrangige Publikationen veröffentlicht, und so können wir auch von einem neuen Pflanzenstamm berichten. Vier neue Methoden und vier Konsortien runden die Forschungsnachrichten ab.
Leider müssen wir auf viele Zusammenkünfte verzichten. So sind zwei Sektionstagungen auf zunächst unbestimmte Zeit verschoben, wohingegen das Treffen einer unserer sechs Sektion vermutlich ins Virtuelle verlagert wird.

zum 49. Newsletter (LogIn erforderlich)

How climate change influences growing seasons length in woody plants and survival of flowers, the substances that influence shape changes of plastids, and the proteins that spur phloem differentiation are in the research focus of the four plant scientists who will receive the science prices of the German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG) this year. Dr. Constantin Mario Zohner, Dr. Jessica Lee Erickson, Dr. Moisés Expósito Alonso and Dr. Eva-Sophie Wallner will get their awards during the Botanikertagung, the International Plant Science Conference in Rostock, Germany. From 16^th to 18^th September, the four will present their research results to the more than 420 conference participants.

DBG promotes the positions of the German Life Sciences Association VBIO on basic research in the life sciences that need to be appreciated, extended and communicated.

Sorry, basic text in German only

Grundlagenforschung braucht mehr Wertschätzung, eine wirksame und längerfristige Finanzierung und die strukturelle Absicherung der dort Beschäftigten. Auch die Wissenschaftskommunikation muss ausgebaut werden, fordert der Verband Biologie, Biowissenschaften und Biomedizin in Deutschland e.V. (VBIO) in seinem Positionspapier. Diese Positionen teilt die DBG, die im Dachverband der Biolog*innen Mitglied ist, und das Papier gemeinsam mit weiteren 12 wissenschaftlichen Fachgesellschaften gezeichnet hat.

Quelle: VBIO

The German Society for Plant Sciences (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, DBG) and its Section Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology (SPPMB) jointly reach out to the newly elected European Parliament and the European Commission to adjust the old EU legislation on genetically modified organisms (GMO), issued in 2001, to current scientific knowledge and international stands. Together with 115 other scientific organisations and institutes, they suggest using the potential of precision breeding techniques like Genome Editing to enable sustainable agriculture and food production in the EU.

Read joint statement (pdf)

More than 85 European scientists and plant science organisations including our German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG) unite to ask the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for immediate review of EU legislation concerning new breeding technologies like #CRISPR. They want to safeguard precision breeding for sustainable agriculture. Read the open letter supported across Europe at the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology. If you want to support this position you are welcome to add your name to the list of signatories.
Letter and option to support the position at VIB-UGent

PhD position (m/f/d)

Biochemistry of Plant-Microbe Interactions

Freie Universität Berlin, Department of Biology, Chemistry, Pharmacy, Institute of Biology, Biochemistry of Plant-Microbe Interactions, Berlin, Germany

Start: as soon as possible

Deadline: 13 February 2023

Details: FU Berlin

PhD position (m/f/d)

Plant-animal interactions in agricultural landscapes

University of Würzburg, Biocentre, Chair Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Germany

Start: 1 March 2023 or later

Deadline: 5 February 2023

Details (pdf)

PhD / PostDoc position (m/f/d)

Agroecology/Chemical Ecology: Distribution and toxicity of grass endophytes in Germany

University of Würzburg, Biocentre, Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Germany

Deadline: 1 March 2023

Details (pdf)

Contact the editor:  stellen [at] deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de     

Publishing your ad is free of charge for members and other plant scientists.

2023

Molecular Biology of Plants (#MBP2023), Conference of our Section Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology, Sportschule Hennef, Germany: 6 - 9 February 2023

Scientific Conference of the Phycology Section, in Jena, Germany, 12 - 15 March 2023

Conference of our Section Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology in Giessen, Germany, 23 - 26 August 2023 

Workshop of the Sektion Applied Botany, in Hohenheim, Germany, 7 - 9 September 2023

Conference for early career scientists of the Section Natural Products in Bad Endbach, 13 - 15 Oktober 2023

2024

Botanik-Tagung International Conference of our German Society for Plant Sciences, in Halle a.d.Saale, Germany, 15 - 19 September 2024

Findings on rice tapetum development, including genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic studies are reviewed by the authors Tariq, Yaseen, Xu, Rehman, Bibi and Uzair. They also describe tapetal programmed cell death (PCD), sporopollenin biosynthesis, ROS activity for tapetum
function and its role in male reproductive development. They summarize the role of the tapetum in male fertility using rice as a model system, and provide information that can be applied in rice hybridization and that of other major crops.

Read whole paper open access in our scientific journal Plant Biology (2022). DOI: 10.1111/plb.13485

(DBG's members are able to access all Plant Biology papers via our intranet).

The authors Dubbert, Couvreur, Kübert, and Werner summarize how interdisciplinary hybrid plant water uptake models add the value of a broader conceptual view of soil-plant feedbacks of water, nutrient and carbon cycling. The main goal is to highlight how the four dominant model approaches can be and have been used to create interdisciplinary hybrid models enabling a holistic system understanding that also embeds plant water uptake plasticity into a broader conceptual view of soil–plant feedbacks of water, nutrient and carbon cycling, or reflects observed drought responses of plant–soil feedbacks and their dynamics under, that is, drought.

Read whole paper open access in our scientific journal Plant Biology 25 (2021) 32–42. DOI: 10.1111/plb.13478.

(DBG's members are able to access all Plant Biology papers via our intranet).

In the review author Lamont summarizes the worldwide literature for reports on germination responses among grasses, whose photosynthetic pathway was known, to treatment by smoke and obtained information for 217 species and 126 genera. Thus, even though C3 and C4 grasses are equally capable of expressing smoke sensitivity, their response depends on the region’s climate and fire regime that also dictate which photosynthetic pathway dominates.

Read whole paper in our scientific journal Plant Biology DOI: 10.1111/plb.13479

(DBG's members are able to access all Plant Biology papers via our intranet).

Authors Diamond, Barnabé and Desgagné-Penix raise questions on the interpretation of data obtained from the technique used and on the true localization of the biosynthetic enzymes in V. planifolia. They discuss the findings surrounding the cellular-localization and activity of enzymes of vanillin biosynthesis. This will help to further understand the pathway and urge for additional research study to resolve the current debate in the biosynthesis of the most popular flavor compound in the world.

Read whole viewpoint in our scientific journal Plant Biology DOI: 10.1111/plb.13465

(DBG's members are able to access all Plant Biology papers via our intranet).

Author Garmash in the review with the title "Suppression of mitochondrial alternative oxidase can result in upregulation of the ROS scavenging network: some possible mechanisms underlying the compensation effect" proposes that the decrease in the relative amount of reduced ascorbate at stable ROS levels as a result of compensation in AOX1a-suppressed plants is a sign of stress development.

Read whole paper in our scientific journal Plant Biology DOI: 10.1111/plb.13477

(DBG's members are able to access all Plant Biology papers via our intranet).

In their paper "Growth, physiological, biochemical and molecular changes in plants induced by magnetic fields" the authors Hafeez, Zahra, Ahmad et al. describe the effects of altering magnetic field conditions (higher or lower values than the Earth’s geomagnetic field) on physiological and biochemical processes of plants: Magnetic field application play a role in changing several physiological processes and could be a potential affordable, reusable and safe practice for enhancing crop productivity by changing physiological and biochemical processes.

Read whole paper in our scientific journal Plant Biology DOI: 10.1111/plb.13459

(DBG's members are able to access all Plant Biology papers via our intranet).

Based on the current experimental advances authors Pradhan, Panda, Bishi, et al. in their review "Progress and prospects of C4 trait engineering in plants" summarize novel biotechnological crop improvement strategies that might help to incorporate C4 photosynthetic traits into C3 crops for sustaining food, fiber and fuel production around the globe. They not only report on successes but also on failures and highlight the pros and cons of using rice as a model plant for short-, medium- and long-term goals of genetic engineering.

Read whole paper in our scientific journal Plant Biology open access. DOI: 10.1111/plb.13446

(DBG's members are able to access all Plant Biology papers via our intranet).

In their review "Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: Effects on secondary metabolite accumulation of traditional Chinese medicines", the authors Ran, Ding, Cao et al. discuss the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on secondary metabolites in Traditional Chinese medicine and the mechanism of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi regulating the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. The results could be used to provide new ideas and methods for improving the quality of Traditional Chinese medicine.

Read whole paper in our scientific journal Plant Biology open access. DOI: 10.1111/plb.13449

(DBG's members are able to access all Plant Biology papers via our intranet).

In their review "Advances in physiological mechanisms of selenium to improve heavy metal stress tolerance in plants" the authors Lai, Yang, Rao et al. summarize several antagonistic effects of selenium on heavy metal stressors such as cadmium and mercury. The review helps to comprehensively understand the physiological mechanism of selenium in plant tolerance to heavy metal stress of plants, and provides theoretical support for the practical application of selenium in environmental remediation and agricultural development.

Read whole review in our scientific journal Plant Biology open access. DOI: 10.1111/plb.13435

(DBG's members are able to access all Plant Biology papers via our intranet).

In their research paper "Central European 2018 hot drought shifts scots pine forest to its tipping point" published in July 2022 authors Haberstroh et al. analyse the severe negative impacts of the hot drought in 2018 on a Pinus sylvestris forests in southwest Germany. The co-occurrence of unfavourable site-specific conditions with recurrent severe droughts resulted in accelerated mortality. Thus, the 2018 hot drought pushed the P. sylvestris stand towards its tipping point, with a subsequent vegetation shift to a broadleaf-dominated forest. To draw this conclusions the authors had analysed needle water potential, carbon assimilation and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. The impact and recovery were assessed as ecosystem carbon exchange, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from satellite data and tree mortality data.

Read whole open access paper in our scientific journal Plant Biology (2022). DOI: 10.1111/plb.13455

(DBG's members are able to access all Plant Biology papers via our intranet).

From the data measured and published in their paper "Seasonal shifts in isoprenoid emission composition from three hyperdominant tree species in central Amazonia" Gomes Alves and the 12 other authors suggest that emission composition shifts are part of a plastic response to increasing abiotic stress (e.g. heat and drought) and reduced photosynthetic supply of substrates for isoprenoid synthesis. They emphasize that future focus should be put on emission composition shifts that are part of a plastic response to increasing abiotic stress (e.g. heat and drought) and reduced photosynthetic supply of substrates for isoprenoid synthesis.

Read whole open access paper in our scientific journal Plant Biology (2022) 24, 721-. DOI: 10.1111/plb.13419

(DBG's members are able to access all Plant Biology papers via our intranet).

In their review "Glutamine synthetase: an unlikely case of functional redundancy in Arabidopsis thaliana" the authors Moreira, Coimbra and Melo integrate analyses on the likely roles of the distinct cytosol- and plastidlocated Glutamine synthetase (GS) isoenzymes in the model plant, highlighting the redundancy of the GS gene family specifically occurring in this plant. This is in contrast to GS isoenzymes that were observed in nitrogen metabolism in species like Oryza sativa and Zea mays.

Read whole paper in our scientific journal Plant Biology DOI: 10.1111/plb.13408

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A growing body of evidence indicates potential role of H₂S in plant defence, particularly against bacterial and fungal pathogens. Recent studies suggested that the gaseous signalling molecule participates in plant defence potentially by

1. regulating glutathione metabolism,
2. inducing expression of pathogenesis-related (PR) and other defence-related genes,
3. modulating enzyme activity through post-translational modifications, and
4. interacting with phytohormones such as jasmonic acid, ethylene and auxin.

The authors Choudhary, Singh, Khatri, and Gupta discuss the biosynthesis, metabolism and interaction of H₂S with phytohormones, and highlight evidence gathered so far to support the emerging roles of H₂S in plant defence against invading pathogens.

Read whole paper in our scientific journal Plant Biology DOI: 10.1111/plb.13376.

(DBG's members are able to access all Plant Biology papers via our intranet).

Since signalling molecules like hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) play a crucial role in mitigating the adverse effects of environmental stresses in plants it is important to understand the several physiological and biochemical mechanisms. The authors review recent advances in understanding the beneficial roles of H₂S in conferring multiple abiotic stress tolerance in plants. And discuss the interaction and crosstalk between H₂S and other signal molecules and highlight some genetic engineering-based current and future directions.

Read whole paper in our scientific journal Plant Biology DOI: 10.1111/plb.13368

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In their review the authors Tyagi, Sharma, Ali, and Gaikwad summarize the crosstalk of the important plant signalling molecules hydrogen sulphide (H₂S) and nitric oxide (NO) during waterlogging stress in legumes, which are emitted from plants and soil microbes and that are known to regulate key physiological pathways. They provide an overall summary on H₂S and NO, including biosynthesis, biological importance, crosstalk, transporter regulation as well as understanding their role during waterlogging using ‘multi-omics’ approach.

Read whole paper in our scientific journal Plant Biology DOI: 10.1111/plb.13319

(DBG's members are able to access all Plant Biology papers via our intranet).

In his viewpoint paper Author Lamont asks for caution against the routine use of end-of-trial germination and viability of ungerminated seeds as an estimate of initial viability in determining germination success of various treatments. He analyses Leucadendron species and in his paper also explores ways to deal with the problem and to preference estimates of initial viability to be undertaken on a separate sample of seeds concurrently with the experiment as this avoids the risk of seed death during the trial.

Read whole paper in our scientific journal Plant Biology (2022) DOI: 10.1111/plb.13407

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In their review, the authors Khan, Xiong, Zhang, Liu, Yaseen und Hui highlight the diverse roles of GRAS in plant systems that could be useful in enhancing crop productivity through genetic modification, especially of crops. It is the first review to report the role and function of the GRAS gene family in plant systems.

Read whole paper in our scientific journal Plant Biology (2021) DOI: 10.1111/plb.13364

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From their findings the authors Krix, Murray and Murray conclude that leaf flammability is significantly affected by increasing radiant heat flux. In their paper “Increasing radiant heat flux affects leaf flammability patterns in plant species of eastern Australian fire-prone woodlands” they suggest that of the flammability attributes assessed, flame duration is the most informative to include in wildfire models which explicitly consider species’ flammability, given that differences among species in flame duration are maintained across a radiant heat flux gradient.

Read whole paper in our scientific journal Plant Biology 24 (2022) 302–312. DOI: 10.1111/plb.13381

(DBG's members are able to access all Plant Biology papers via our intranet).

The German Society for Plant Sciences (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, DBG) is the largest non-profit network of plant sciences and botany in the German speaking area. The society represents plant scientists, promotes plant sciences nationally and internationally and furthers scientific exchange among its more than 1,000 members. The DBG is one of the oldest botanical societies in the world, which is still active. It integrates all plant science disciplines, supports early career scientists and unites all generations.

If you want to support plant sciences, be part of and enjoy the benefits of a strong network, please feel free to join our society. Please use the online application form we have created for your convenience.