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Winter School 2025

Register for the upcoming PSC Winter School 2025: Harnessing Machine Learning for Breakthroughs in Plant and Environmental Sciences (2 ECTS)

Location: ETH Zürich Center, tbd

Dates: 10-14th March, 2025
Flyer (PDF, 498 KB)

Symposium 2025

Register for the upcoming Symposium 2025: Harnessing Machine Learning for Breakthroughs in Plant and Environmental Sciences

Speakers: A lineup of national and international experts

Location: ETH Zürich Center, tbd

Dates: 13-14th March, 2025

Systems Thinking and Design for Social Change and in Policymaking

This workshop will offer theoretical and practical insights into a toolbox of techniques used in system mapping and system design while being guided by different experts. Participants are asked to bring their own problems and cases to be worked on.

Melanie Paschke and Tobias Luthe (ETH), Laura Ferrarello (EPFL), Anaïs Sägesser (scaling4good & innosuisse), Swen Bos, Empa

Dates: 20.01.2025 - 22.01.2025, 3 days (9:00-17:00)

Detailed course description (PDF, 333 KB) and registration Contact: Luisa Last

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Science Highlights

Defective pollen tube tip growth induces neo-polyploid infertility

Westermann, J., et al., Science, Vol 383, Issue 6686 (2024)

Genome duplication in Arabidopsis arenosa causes low fertility due to pollen tube defects like slow growth and premature bursting. These issues improve in evolved polyploids, with specific genes linked to better performance, highlighting pollen tube growth as a key fertility challenge.

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Escarpment evolution drives diversification of the Madagascar flora

Yi Liu, Y.W., et al., Science, Vol 383, Issue 6686 (2024)

Madagascar's rich endemic biodiversity evolved over millions of years, especially along the eastern escarpment. Precipitation-driven erosion and topographic changes create transient habitats, isolating species and driving allopatric speciation, contributing to its biodiversity.

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Soil health associated with higher primary productivity across Europe

Romero, F., et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution (2024)

This pan-European study of 588 sites shows that soil health, higher in woodlands than in grasslands and croplands, is positively linked to productivity in croplands and grasslands. Soil biodiversity, particularly nitrogen-fixing bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi, is crucial for maintaining productivity.

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A paternal signal induces endosperm proliferation ...

Simonini, S., et al., Science, Vol 383, Issue 6683 (2024)

Fertilization in multicellular organisms resumes the gametes' cell cycle, requiring both to be in the same phase. In Arabidopsis, a sperm signal triggers female central cell proliferation by degrading the RBR1 protein, allowing S phase progression, crucial for endosperm and seed development.

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Multispecies deep learning using citizen science data produces more ..

Brun, P., et al., Nature Communications 15, 4421 (2024)

Using deep neural networks (DNNs) and citizen science data, researchers modeled the spatiotemporal distributions of 2477 plant species inSwitzerland. Multispecies DNNs outperformed traditional methods in predicting distributions and community composition, offering insights into phenology and future changes.

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Weiterführende Informationen

Join us for the SwissPLANT 2025 symposium that will be held 15-17 January 2025 in Les Diablerets.

Registration for the annual meeting of the Swiss Society of Plant Biology is open. Kindly submit your abstracts.

Participants get an overview and discuss current research advances in plant sciences in Switzerland. The conference is an excellent opportunity for senior researchers to interact and network with their peers.