Braunschweig (dpo) - Darauf haben Hobbyköche und Gastronomen weltweit gewartet: Gentechnikern ist es gelungen, eine Zwiebel zu züchten, die einen zum

Dr Farooq Ahmad from the Institute of Phytopathology receives extensive BMFTR funding to investigate forest adaptation strategies to climate change.

Dr Farooq Ahmad from the Institute of Phytopathology receives extensive BMFTR funding to investigate forest adaptation strategies to climate change.

We analyzed transcriptional networks in barley under single and combined Fusarium head blight (FHB) and drought stress. We applied complementary Weighted Gene Correlation Network Analysis (WGCNA) to i...

We analyzed transcriptional networks in barley under single and combined Fusarium head blight (FHB) and drought stress. We applied complementary Weighted Gene Correlation Network Analysis (WGCNA) to identify stress-associated gene co-expression modules and GENIE3 to infer gene regulatory networks (GRNs). Integration of these frameworks revealed strong overlaps between co-expression modules and GRN clusters, highlighting robust regulatory patterns. Key transcription factors (TFs) were identified based on their weighted node degrees, reflecting their connectivity within the network. Independent analysis of paired transcription factor binding sites in promoter regions further supported predicted regulatory interactions. Notably, WRKY TFs emerged as central regulators of FHB response, consistent with their known roles in defense and secondary metabolite biosynthesis, but did not appear in drought-associated contexts. For bHLH or NAC TFs, individual family members steered FHB or drought responses but not both. Our findings demonstrate the power of combining network inference and motif enrichment to identify candidate TFs controlling stress responses, providing a solid foundation for targeted functional validation. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

The new rules will make the EU food system more secure and sustainable, with climate- and pest-resistant plants that give higher yields and require fewer fertilisers and pesticides.

Für viele gentechnisch veränderte Lebensmittel soll es künftig keine Hinweispflicht mehr in Supermärkten geben. Darauf einigten sich Vertreter aus dem Europaparlament und dem Rat der EU-Länder.

The new rules will make the EU food system more secure and sustainable, with climate- and pest-resistant plants that give higher yields and require fewer fertilisers and pesticides.

This Summer school is organized by the Saclay Plant Sciences (SPS) network, one of the largest European plant sciences communities.   scRNAseq approaches have revolutionized the way biologists approach their research subjects, by making it possible to dissect molecular mechanisms at the single-cell level. But although technological developments have recently made these approaches more accessible, their expensive use still requires significant technical training, including the good conception of experimental designs, the preparation of samples as well as their bioinformatics analyses. In addition, different protocols and various bioinformatics and statistical analyzes are available, and it can be difficult to choose the most relevant ones for the biological question at hand.   Over five days, the SPS Summer School 2026 will cover all the stages of a scRNAseq project in plants. Through a combination of lectures and practical work, the many specific features of plant models will be highlighted by experts from the Saclay Plant Sciences network (CNRS and INRAE), the ViB in Ghent and the Pasteur Institute. After this international school, participants will: –    Have an overview of the different scRNAseq technologies and understand their pros and cons. –    Be able to design experiments depending on the biological question.  –    Be trained on sample preparation techniques for single cell and single nuclei –    Understand the different steps of bioinformatics and statistical analysis –    Have a better biological interpretation of results –    Have facilitated exchanges with technology platforms, bioinformaticians, and biostatisticians in order to successfully complete their scRNAseq project The summer school will bring together outstanding and enthusiastic young scientists (PhD students and post-docs) from all over the world in order to exchange knowledge and ideas. It is limited to a small group of participants (20 maximum) to privilege informal interactions and scientific discussions   Application deadline: March 12, 2026 (midnight) Answers will be sent mid-April at the latest.    

Quantitative disease resistance in a wild tomato genotype evolved through species-specific regulatory network rewiring, with an ancient transcription facto