Biological timing in photosynthetic organisms

The meeting will focus on fundamental advances in photoperiodism, phenology and chronobiology of photosynthetic organisms- plants, algae and cyanobacteria- with emphasis on the evolution and ecology of these processes. Our vision is to emphasise underlying principles and concepts that characterise these processes, in addition to molecular mechanisms. There are numerous and major unanswered questions in the field, such as daily timing in ecological and field contexts, how clocks and seasonality shape organismal interactions including with microbiomes, the evolution of photoperiodism and circadian clocks, and how knowledge of biological timekeeping can be genuinely harnessed for agricultural improvement. For these reasons, the Symposium will cut across all sections of the New Phytologist readership. We envisage to include talks on diverse topics, such as field biology, agroecology, modelling, epigenomics, plant-microbe interactions, and how circadian clocks can be leveraged in crop breeding to improve adaptation to climate change, fostering new and unexpected synergies.

Organising committee:

• Veronica Arana, CONICET, Argentia

• Ant Dodd, John Innes Centre, UK

• Josh Gendron, Yale, USA

• Carlos Hotta, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

• Nathalie Verbruggen, Free University of Brussels, Belgium