Source: UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI submitted to NRP
40TH ANNUAL UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI INTERDISCIPLINARY PLANT GROUP SYMPOSIUM: PLANT HORMONES AT THE INTERSECTION OF STRESS AND DEVELOPMENT
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1032038
Grant No.
2024-67013-42194
Cumulative Award Amt.
$20,000.00
Proposal No.
2023-11871
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
May 1, 2024
Project End Date
Apr 30, 2025
Grant Year
2024
Program Code
[A1152]- Physiology of Agricultural Plants
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
(N/A)
COLUMBIA,MO 65211
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Crop plants are exposed to many different environmental stresses (heat, cold, drought, flooding etc) and infection with and competition by other organisms (bacteria, viruses, insects, weeds etc). Responding to or defending from these stresses, causes reduced crop yield because plants often stop or slow growth while dealing with the threat. This is called the "growth-defense" tradeoff. Plant hormones regulate growth and development and the response to the environment and therefore have been hypothesized to play a role in this tradeoff. The goal of this symposium is to bring together researchers in the fields of hormone biology, abiotic and biotic stress, and development to increase discussion, collaboration and research to understand the mechanism of tradeoff between growth and response to stress. In particular, we aim to highlight the role in hormones in modifying plant development in response to stress. We will promote the participation of early career researchers, postdoctoral scholars and graduate and undergraduate students and in addition provide education in this area with a pre-symposium "Hormones 101" workshop. We will publish a special issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany, dedicated to reviews and opinions on how plant hormones mediate the interaction between stress and development. We hypothesize that understanding the mechanism of tradeoff between stress and development will advance progress on improving the resilience of crops to sustain crop yield in the future.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
2061510105050%
2032499102050%
Knowledge Area
206 - Basic Plant Biology; 203 - Plant Biological Efficiency and Abiotic Stresses Affecting Plants;

Subject Of Investigation
1510 - Corn; 2499 - Plant research, general;

Field Of Science
1050 - Developmental biology; 1020 - Physiology;
Goals / Objectives
Plant hormones play essential roles in development and regulate the interaction of plants with the environment. As plants mount responses against any type of stress, growth and therefore yield is invariably impacted. This "growth-defense" tradeoff is well known in the field of biotic stress, but plants subjected to abiotic stress also stop growing. Various hypotheses have been proposed for this tradeoff, including resource allocation and cross talk between "stress" hormones like Jasmonic acid (JA), salicylic acid (SA), abscisic acid (ABA) and ethylene (C2H4), and "growth" hormones such as auxin, cytokinin (CK), Brassinosteroids (BR) and Gibberellic acid (GA). While stress researchers often measure "growth" or biomass, the mechanism of growth suppression is not often investigated through the lens of development. The overall goal of this symposium is to bring together scientists in the fields of stress and development to accelerate discussions, collaborations and research that address the tradeoffs between growth and response to biotic and abiotic stress. We hypothesize that understanding the mechanism of the tradeoff between stress and development is required to counteract the impact of stress on crop yield. Long term, understanding this tradeoff will enable building resilient crops to sustain crop yield in the future.Objective 1 is to promote interdisciplinary research. We will bring scientists together in the fields of hormones, stress, and development to address the tradeoffs between growth and response to biotic and abiotic stress.Objective 2 is to provide networking and training opportunities for a new generation of students by including short talks, speed talks, poster sessions and a student-speaker dinner in the agenda. The "Hormones 101" workshop, the day before the symposium, will enable students to gain a foundational knowledge in plant hormones.Objective 3 is to foster career development of early career investigators. Of the nineteen confirmed speakers, five are junior and half are women. We will provide travel awards to students and early career researchers working on crops. We will further promote inclusion by inviting students from local primarily undergraduate institutions and HBCUs to attend the conference.
Project Methods
The overall goal of this symposium is to bring together scientists in the field of stress and development to promote synergistic interactions that address the tradeoffs between growth and response to biotic and abiotic stress. Our hypothesis is that plant hormones play a mechanistic role in this tradeoff.Our specific objectives and methods are:Objective 1 - Promote interdisciplinary researchWe have planned five sessions, three focusing on abiotic stress (temperature, water, and nutrients) and two on biotic stress (plant-organism and plant-plant interactions). For each session, we will have a keynote speaker on a specific hormone, followed by talks focusing on hormones, stress and development, or interactions between them. USDA funds will be used to support the travel of four early career invited speakers.Objective 2 - Provide networking and training opportunities for a new generation of studentsEach session will include selected talks from the abstracts, submitted by graduate students and postdocs, and there will be "speed talks" on posters prior to two poster sessions, which will allow plenty of time for interactions. Students and postdocs are invited to a dinner with the speakers which enables early career scientists to directly interact and network with speakers. In addition, we will host a "Hormones 101" workshop prior to the symposium, which will enable everyone, including undergraduate students, to gain foundational knowledge in all plant hormones. USDA funds will be used to reduce registration costs for all postdocs, graduate students and undergraduate students. Eight travels awards will be offered to support the attendance of postdocs and students.Objective 3 - Foster career development of early career investigators and inclusionOf the nineteen confirmed speakers, one in each session are early career (assistant professors or postdoc) and half of the confirmed speakers are women. We will further promote inclusion by inviting students from local primarily undergraduate institutions and HBCUs to attend the conference.

Progress 05/01/24 to 04/30/25

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience was the international scientific community. There were 163 attendees at the 40th Annual IPG Symposium on "Plant Hormones at the Intersection of Stress and Development" from five countries including the USA, Germany, United Kingdom, China, and Korea. Within the USA, speakers and attendees came from six states including California, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, and Missouri. Attendees were mostly from academia, but three companies were also represented. A broader audience was reached through the publication of a special issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany associated with the conference. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The conference enabled the professional development of 163 attendees who learned about the latest discoveries in plant hormone biology and networked with the community. These attendees included early career scientists: 37 postdoctoral scholars, 50 graduate students, and 6 undergraduate students. A specific dinner was organized for students and postdocs to interact with the speakers and the 5 attendees from industry. Two poster sessions were held, posters were judged, and awards were given in the categories of undergraduate student, graduate student and postdoc/early career researcher. In addition, a workshop on plant hormones was organized for the day before the meeting began, which was free and open to the community. Undergraduate level lectures were presented on seven plant growth hormones by experts in the community. This enabled early career attendees to be familiar with the fundamentals of plant hormones before they attended the conference. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results of the meeting were disseminated as a special issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol 76, May 2025 which was edited by the chair of the conference, Paula McSteen, University of Missouri and the co-chair, Norman Best, USDA-ARS. 10 of the speakers at the conference contributed reviews to the special issue (highlighted in bold below) Best, Norman B. McSteen, Paula; Plant hormones at the intersection of stress and development Robil, Janlo M.; Awale, Prameela; McSteen, Paula; Best, Norman B. Gibberellic acid: Extending the Green Revolution Gonzales, Clarice F; Kelley, Dior R Interplay between auxin and abiotic stresses in maize Salinas, Paula; Velozo, Sebastian; Herrera-Vasquez, Ariel Recent Insights into Salicylic Acid Accumulation: Emerging Molecular Players and Novel Perspectives on Plant Development and Nutrition Sakakibara, Hitoshi Five unaddressed questions about cytokinin biosynthesis Sharma, Shambhavi; Prasad, Manoj Deconvoluting the complex phytohormonal signaling nexus during plant-virus interaction Chang, Sun Hyun; George, Wesley J; Nelson, David C Transcriptional regulation of development by SMAX1-LIKE proteins, targets of strigolactone and karrikin signaling Chu, Liuyang; Schafer, Cay Christin; Matthes, Michaela S Boron-hormone interactions in root and shoot meristems of plants Guo, Hongqing; Tang, Jie Jack of all trades: Crosstalk between FERONIA signaling and hormone pathways Kim, Jiwoo; Seo, Pil Joon The early hormone signaling network underlying wound-induced plant regeneration Duendar, Goenuel; Ramirez, Veronica E; Poppenberger, Brigitte The heat shock response of plants: new insights into modes of perception and signaling and how hormones contribute Sharma, Shivam; Bennett, Malcolm J; Mehra, Poonam Roles of Hormones in Regulating Root Growth-Water Interactions Raygoza, Alejandro; Strable, Josh Diverse roles of ethylene in maize growth and development and its importance in shaping plant architecture Park, Hye Lin; Yoon, Gyeong Mee From Growth to Stress: RAF-like Kinases as Integrators of Hormonal Signals in Plants What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The 40th Annual Symposium IPG Symposium on "Plant Hormones at the Intersection of Stress and Development" was held at the University of Missouri, Columbia campus from May 21-24, 2024. Objective 1 was accomplished by organizing the conference around 3 sessions on the role of plant growth hormones in the intersection between abiotic stress and development, and 2 sessions on the role of plant growth hormones in the intersection between biotic stress and development, rather than focusing each session on specific hormones. Each session included speakers working in model systems and crops. There were 19 invited speaker talks, 9 short talks selected from abstracts, 10 lightning talks and 50 posters. A special issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany was organized associated with the conference which focused on the intersection of the role of hormones in stress and development. Objectives 2 and 3 was accomplished by providing opportunities for students and postdocs to present at the conference, such as a short talk, lightning talk or poster. In particular, the conference grant subsidized the attendance of 83 graduate students and postdocs, so that we were able to offer a reduced registration rate. We provided travel awards to 8 graduate students and 4 postdocs working on crops (from Iowa State University, University of Illinois, Danforth Center in St Louis and Lincoln University in Jefferson City) to enable their attendance and presentation at the meeting. In addition, the grant supported the travel costs for 5 early career scientists (postdocs, group leaders or professors) who work on crops to speak at the conference.

Publications