12. Nov 2026 Actualia (engl.) · Conference Report

French-German Maize Breeders’ School

Prof. Dr Frank Hochholdinger opens the conference with a welcome address and expresses his gratitude to the sponsors for their support. Photo: Verena Bresgen
Dr Danning Wang (TU München) presents her work at a scientific session in the Festsaal of the University of Bonn. Photo: Britta Albinus
Scientific exchange during a break between sessions. Photo: Frank Hocholdinger
Visit to the Neanderthal exhibition at the LVR-Landesmuseum Bonn on the evening of the first day of the meeting. Photo: Frank Hocholdinger

The 3rd French-German Maize Breeders’ School took place on 3rd and 4th November 2026 at the University of Bonn and brought together 82 early-career scientists and established researchers from universities and industry from France, Germany and Austria to discuss latest scientific developments in maize genetics and breeding. The meeting comprised of four invited talks and 20 short oral presentations. Organizer Prof. Dr Frank Hochholdinger reports about the event, which is scheduled to continue in France in three years. 

The program comprised four scientific sessions with 24 talks, split evenly between speakers from France and Germany. On the evening of the first day, participants enjoyed a conference dinner and a visit to the Neanderthal exhibition at the LVR-Landesmuseum Bonn.

Session’s topics

The first session explored how genomic and phenomic selection can modernize hybrid breeding, covering tester-free hybrid testing, multi-trait selection indices, portfolio-based hybrid positioning and multi-omics modelling of genotype-by-environment interactions. The second session focused on genetic diversity and breeding resources, with talks on landraces and genebank material, the genetic signatures of domestication and selection, lessons from forty years of maize breeding and the cellular basis of haploid induction. The third session addressed the molecular basis of heterosis, development and plant architecture, presenting haploid induction and heterosis through single-cell and epigenetic approaches, alongside leaf metabolism, meristem architecture and the effect of local homozygosity on hybrid performance. The fourth session dealt with root systems, nutrition and environmental resilience, including boron nutrition, root traits and hydraulics, mycorrhizal symbiosis and low-nitrogen response, reduced phosphorus fertilization, and the impact of climate change on maize development and corn smut infection.

Outlook 

Funding by the German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG) was used to keep the registration for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers for this two-day event low (40 €/80 €). The 4th French-German Maize Breeders’ School will take place in 2029 in France.

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Prof. Dr Frank Hochholdinger, University of Bonn, INRES - Crop Functional Genomics, https://www.inres.uni-bonn.de/cfg/en