EMBO Workshop — Molecular responses of plants facing climate change

Climate change profoundly alters plant growth and development, presenting a serious threat to food security in the coming decades. Fortunately, considerable research in the plant sciences community focuses on understanding the physiological processes and underlying molecular mechanisms through which plants can adapt to these changes. This recently resulted in significant progress, and even positions plants as a solution to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and associated climate change effects. This EMBO Workshop will convene scientists with a broad, integrative view of plant science in the context of climate change. It will highlight the molecular mechanisms of plant adaptation to major factors associated with climate change (elevated CO2, temperature, drought and salinity), and identify processes beyond resilience to and memory of climate fluctuations. It will also pinpoint the recent molecular approaches for harnessing plants to mitigate climate change effects, and will highlight examples of adaptation to extreme life conditions to insure food security under ever more constrained environmental conditions.