Keynote Lectures
Opening plenary session
Prof. Dr. ir. Wim de Vries
Wageningen University, Netherlands
Wim de Vries is professor in the discipline of environmental systems analysis. His chair focuses on "Integrated nitrogen impact analysis" but his research domain is broader than nitrogen alone. His research is organized around impacts of the input of nutrients (especially nitrogen,phosphorus, calcium, magnesium and potssium) and metals in agriculture and forests on air, soil and water quality, productivity and plant species diversity and related input boundaries/critical loads. He has a long lasting scientific experience in the domain of (i) soil chemistry in relation to air pollution, forest ecology and management (over 35 years), and (ii) sustainability of agricultural management in the Netherlands (over 20 years), Europe (over 10 years), China and at global scale (over 5 -10 years).
His specific expertise is related to the development and application of soil models at various regional scales including landscapes, countries and continents (especially Europe) in combination with field and laboratory research. This refers to the use and fate of carbon and nutrients (especially nitrogen and phosphorous) in soil, air and water. He has also gained a large experience in related topics, such as atmospheric chemistry and effects on (services of) terrestrial ecosystems, with special reference to forests in view of eutropication and acidification.
Wim de Vries published more than 600 research papers, book chapters and reports, of which over 250 papers in international peer reviewed journals on the topics above. He is on the Standford’s list of World’s Top 2% Scientists in terms of citations, H-index, and a wide range of bibliometric indicators.
Session I: Mechanisms of Nitrogen uptake from the soil
Prof. Dr. Lixing Yuan
China Agricultural University, China
Dr. Lixing Yuan is a Professor and Dean at the College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Hohenheim, Germany. His research focuses on elucidating the physiological, genetic, and molecular mechanisms underlying nutrient use efficiency in plants, with particular emphasis on root system architecture development and nutrient uptake and utilization processes. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in leading international journals, including Nature Plants and The Plant Cell. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for journals such as Frontiers in Plant Science, aBIOTECH, and Maize Sciences, and is a member of several academic organizations, including the International Society of Root Research (ISRR), the International Plant Nutrition Council (IPNC), and the International Symposium on the Nitrogen Nutrition of Plants (ISNNP).
Session II: Nitrogen metabolism
Prof. Dr. Guohua Xu
Nanjing Agricultural University, China
Guohua Xu is professor at Nanjing Agricultural University, China, specializing in Plant Mineral Nutrition. His research focuses on improving nutrient use efficiency in major field crops and vegetables. A central aim of his work is to employ plant molecular genetics to enhance the acquisition and utilization of major nutrients - nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium - under diverse environmental conditions. His group has made significant contributions by identifying crucial transporters and their regulators that mediate nutrient uptake in rice and solanaceous species. These mechanisms operate through multiple pathways, including direct root uptake, root-rhizosphere microbiota interactions, and arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis. Guohua Xu has authored over 250 peer-reviewed articles in leading international journals. Since 2019 he has been recognized continuously by Clarivate Analytics as Highly Cited Researcher in Plant and Animal Science.
Session III: Nitrogen translocation and long-distance signaling
Prof. Dr. Hitoshi Sakakibara
Nagoya University, Japan
Hitoshi Sakakibara’s research specializes in plant hormones, in particular cytokinins, using a cross-disciplinary approach that combines genetics and precise chemical analysis. His study has revealed how cytokinin metabolism is closely linked to nitrogen availability. Cytokinins act as systemic signals that transmit the nitrogen status from roots to shoots, coordinating nutrient conditions with shoot meristem activity and organ formation. He identified CYP735A, an enzyme producing trans-zeatin, a cytokinin involved in nitrogen-dependent long-distance signaling, and uncovered the function of LOG, which locally activate cytokinins to regulate development. His research provides a molecular basis for integrating nitrogen nutrition with hormonal control, contributing to strategies for improving nutrient use efficiency and crop productivity.
Session IV: Cellular N sensing and signaling
Prof. Dr. Eva Benková
Institute of Science and Technology, Austria
Plants as sessile organisms constantly integrate varying environmental signals to flexibly adapt their growth and development. Local heterogeneities in water and nutrients availability, sudden changes in temperature, light or other stresses trigger dramatic changes in plant growth and development. Multiple hormonal signaling cascades interconnected into complex networks act as essential endogenous translators of these exogenous signals in plant adaptive responses. How the hormonal networks are established, maintained and modulated to control specific developmental outputs is the focus of the Benková group. Recently, the group has located several convergence points that integrate different hormonal inputs. Importantly, some of these identified components exceed their function in the hormonal crosstalk and provide functional links with pathways mediating perception of environmental stimuli.
Dr. Anne Krapp
IJPB, INRAE Versailles, France
Anne Krapp‘s research interest lies in an integrative approach to plant physiology focussing on the ability of plants to adapt rapidly to environmental fluctuations. Previously, she studied the physiological and molecular responses of plants to nitrate availability focusing on the role of nitrate transporters and NLP transcription factors. Today, her team aims at understanding the molecular mechanisms of plant responses to nutritional signals, at the cellular level and its integration at the whole plant level in a changing environment.
Session V: Systems biology and artificial intelligence to study Nitrogen regulatory pathways
Dr. Tim Jeffers
New York University, Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, USA
Tim Jeffers is a Postdoctoral Associate in Gloria Coruzzi's Plant Systems Biology laboratory at NYU's Center for Genomics and Biology. Using wet lab and computational approaches, he investigates the gene regulatory networks underlying crop nitrogen use efficiency and drought resilience–applying evolutionary, systems biology, and machine learning methods to identify conserved transcription factor networks. He currently serves as Project Manager for a cross-institutional collaboration focused on predicting and validating transcription factor interactions that govern nitrogen use efficiency in C4 plants. Tim completed his graduate work at UC Berkeley, where he applied similar approaches to understand biofuel production and photosynthesis regulation across diverse green algae and plants.
Session VI: Nitrogen use efficiency and sustainibility
Prof. Dr. Chengcai Chu
South China Agricultural University, China
Chengcai Chu mainly focuses on dissecting molecular mechanisms of nutrient sensing and utilization, the interplay among different nutrients, and also their impact on nutrient use efficiency of plants using rice as a model system. The Chu Lab also interested in rice breeding by using the knowledge, resources and tools obtained from field and laboratory studies, and combine approaches of genetics and molecular technologies to improve nitrogen use efficiency of crops, a key agronomic trait in sustainable agriculture.
Session VII: Rhizosphere effects and Nitrogen-cycling microbiomes affecting nitrogen use efficiency
Prof. Dr. Peng Yu
Technical University Munich, Germany
Peng Yu’s research focuses on the genetic and ecological basis of root system formation and function, and on the dynamic interactions between plant roots and the soil microbiome. His work integrates plant genetics, molecular biology, microbiome ecology, and multi-omics approaches to understand how root systems sense and respond to environmental cues, particularly under conditions of nutrient limitation and drought. A central aim of his research is to decipher how plant genetic variation shapes the assembly and function of the rhizosphere microbiome, and how these interactions influence plant growth, stress resilience, and resource acquisition. Ultimately, his group aims to develop a conceptual and methodological framework that integrates plant genetics with microbiome ecology to harness beneficial root–microbe interactions for sustainable agriculture. This research contributes to emerging efforts to design crop–microbiome systems that enhance productivity while reducing environmental inputs, aligning with the broader “One Health” concept.