THURSDAY, 21 MAY 2026

SESSION 1 - MOLECULAR AND CELL BIOLOGY
Chair: Nick Irwin and Silvia Ramundo
09:30     
  		Flora Vincent, EMBL Heidelberg | DE
Symbiosis in marine unicellular eukaryotes
09:55
 		Satoyo Oya, Dept. of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis |US
Towards understanding the molecular mechanisms behind H3K4m1-driven genomic mutation
10:15
 		Nick Desnoyer, The Sainsbury Laboratory | UK
OpenFlower: Designer flowers for art and education
10:40
 		Jens C. Mülders, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Potsdam | DE
Induction of pro-viral microenvironments by Tombusviridae effector proteins
11:00Coffee Break
11:30Poster Session 1 (odd numbers)
13:00Lunch
SESSION 2 - DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
Chair: Fred Berger and Arturo Marí-Ordóñez
14:00 Kenji Fukushima, National Institute of Genetics | JP
Genomic convergence in carnivorous plants and beyond
14:25Sara Paola Nastasi, Department of Biosciences, Università degli Studi di Milano | IT
Investigating gravity-sensing mechanism in rhizoids of Marchantia polymorpha
14:45 
 		Yan Ma, Gregor Mendel Institute | AT
Insect-Induced Galls: Nature’s master plant engineers
15:10
 		Lorenz Oberkofler, Faculty of Biology, Genetics, LMU Munich | DE
Pathogen cell wall degrading enzymes facilitate extracellular vesicles to deliver RNA into plants
15:30Group Photo & Coffee Break
16:00



 		Keynote lecture I (introduction by Liam Dolan)
Emmanuelle Bayer, CNRS - University of Bordeaux | FR
Plant cell–cell communication: Staying in touch across cell walls
17:00Reception
18:30
 		ChimeraX and AlphaFold Workshop: How-Do-You-Do-It?
Led by Matthias Vorländer, Institute of Molecular Pathology | AT

FRIDAY, 22 MAY 2026

SESSION 3 - STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY
Chair: Silvia Ramundo and Nick Irwin
09:30      
 		Jani R. Bolla, University of Oxford | UK
Small subunit isoform diversity underlies structural heterogeneity in native plant Rubisco
09:55 Gal Ofir, Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen | DE
 Immunity and selfishness in genomic variability hotspots of Arabidopsis thaliana
10:15Sabrina Ergun, Princeton University | USA
Membrane and condensate interaction in the CO2-fixing organelle, the pyrenoid
10:40Enrique Gonzalez-Duran, Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Potsdam-Golm | DE
Strong induction of paternal transmission of plant mitochondria through manipulation of environmental and genetic factors
11:00Coffee Break
11:30Poster session 2 (even numbers)
13:00Lunch
SESSION 4 - GENETICS AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
Chair: Fred Berger and Yan Ma
14:00Masayuki Onishi, Duke University | US
Septins: cytoskeletal proteins absent in land plants that may have shaped early plastid evolution
14:25Cäcilia F. Kunz, University of Göttingen, Institute for Microbiology and Genetics | DE
Plant terrestrialization: responses to UV in the closest algal relatives of land plants
14:45
 		Gulnara Tagirdzhanova, Stockholm University | SE
Exploring molecular mechanisms behind the lichen symbiosis with omics
15:10Jia-Wu Feng,  Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gatersleben | DE
A pangenomic view of genome evolution across the genus Hordeum
15:30Coffee Break
16:00


 		Keynote lecture II (introduction by Yan Ma)
Noah K. Whiteman, University of California, Berkeley | US
My model organism eats your model organism: Lessons from a Drosophila that attacks Arabidopsis
17:00Closing remarks
19:00 Conference dinner @ Rathauskeller