In response to moderately elevated temperatures, plants adjust their morphology and development, including enhanced elongation growth of various organs. These warm temperature-dependent morphological adjustments are the focus of thermomorphogenesis research, which is becoming increasingly relevant due to climate change and the associated increase in prolonged warm temperature episodes. Every two years, scientists from the thermomorphogenesis community gather to discuss the latest advances within the field. This year, the 4^th Thermomorphogenesis meeting took place at Würzburg University from September 4^th to 6^th with the financial support by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG).

International audience

In total, the meeting was attended by 48 scientists. In addition to 14 attendees from Germany, the vast majority came from other European countries. A distinctive feature of past Thermomorphogenesis meetings, which was also maintained at the meeting in Würzburg, is the high proportion of presentations on unpublished data and the significant number of talks given by early-career researchers. Approximately two-thirds of the presentations were delivered by PhD students or early-stage postdoctoral researchers. Funding from the DBG enabled the allocation of three travel grants to early-career researchers from the UK and India, allowing them to present their work to the audience.

Scientific highlights and further research needs

The 30 talks were grouped into several topical sessions, covering a range of subjects from post-transcriptional and phosphorylation-mediated regulation of plant thermal responses to crosstalk between light and temperature signalling, as well as heat stress resistance and its metabolic aspects.

Several presentations addressed the interplay between warm temperatures and drought stress - a combination of stressors that often co-occur under natural conditions but the combination of which is still little studied at the molecular level. Another high-interest topic discussed in several talks was the role of biomolecular condensate formation in plant temperature responses. Notably, nearly all of the presentations focused on research involving the model plant Arabidopsis with very few exceptions only (addressing oilseed rape and wheat). This was also picked up in the discussion following the concluding talk by Professor Dr. Marcel Quint, who recognised and critically assessed the progress that has been made in the field of thermomorphogenesis research over the past years. One of the conclusions from the discussion was the need for more translational research to transfer the knowledge gained from model species, such as Arabidopsis, to other species, particularly crop plants.

Next Thermomorphogenesis Symposium

The scientific programme was completed by the conference dinner held in one of Würzburg’s most traditional restaurants, which dates back to medieval times. Overall, the meeting was regarded as a huge success, continuing the collegial atmosphere of the previous meetings and the many discussions it enabled. The next thermomorphogenesis meeting will take place in Dundee, Scotland, in 2026 and will be hosted by Dr. Martin Balcerowicz.