Welcome

When and where?

Researchers in plant development and plant interactions meet at the Congressi Stefano Franscini in Ascona, Switzerland from 24-28 May 2027 to discuss transcriptome reprogramming in plants and obtain hands-on instruction on the CUT & RUN technique.

Scientific Focus

How do plant cell decide which genes to transcribe, and how can we read that decision in space and time?

The first thread of the workshop concerns transcriptional control of developmental processes and the way environmental inputs bend those programmes. Meristem maintenance, organ specification, body architecture and reproductive transitions are governed by transcription factor networks whose outputs are continuously renegotiated with light, temperature, nutrient status and biotic pressure. Speakers working in various model systems as well as crops will confront the shared logic behind those networks.

The second thread follows reprogramming itself: how do signalling pathways rewrite a cellular transcriptome, and how do far chromatin state, transcription factor occupancy and cofactor recruitment predict that rewriting? Discussions will centre on how we can decipher these events at high spatiotemporal resolution, where single-cell and low-input approaches now resolve responses that bulk tissue averages had quietly masked.

Running through both threads is CUT & RUN, whose sensitivity on limited plant material has made it the practical route to protein–DNA occupancy maps across cell types. Its intricacies — nuclei integrity, antibody choice, MNase calibration, digestion timing and the interpretation of low-background libraries — are conveyed to participants in a hands-on workshop format.

Invited Speakers

We have invited a few experts in the field who will give featured talks and who will lead the scientific sessions.