Newsletter fo the International Society of Root Research, July 2022

Dear Members of the International Society of Root Research,

We would like to welcome you to the ISRR newsletter, designed to stimulate global communication and advancement of plant root science and inform you about ongoing activities within the root research community and the ISRR. Feel free to share this newsletter with others, ISRR members and non-members.

Feature article: Root biology never sleeps – impressions from last year’s Joint Online meetings of ISRR11 (11th Symposium of the International Society of Root Research) and ROOTING2021 (9th International Symposium on Root Development) by student/postdoc ambassador Maria

The virtual ISRR11/Rooting2021 was a landmark event to advance root and rhizosphere research that gathered expertise and technological advances across multiple, complementary disciplines. The meeting provided an exceptional opportunity for networking and collaboration to push the frontiers of root research and has yielded fruitful interdisciplinary partnerships such as the EJP Soil WISH-ROOTS project consortium.

The ISRR11 Ambassador cohort successfully overcame the challenges of online communication to establish an enthusiastic, collaborative team of 21 ambassadors that benefited from a fantastic training programme including the organisation of a mini symposium, the publication of a meeting a report in New Phytologist (see below, Carley et al. 2022) and an online survey currently available on bioRxiv (Delory et al. 2022). For many of the ambassadors, the programme has had a significant impact on their professional career while developing long-term partnerships between the team but also with other researchers through the networking activities

By Maria Hernandez-Soriano

Feature publications

Freschet et al. 2021: “A starting guide to root ecology: strengthening ecological concepts and standardising root classification, sampling, processing and trait measurements”, New Phytologist (doi:10.1111/nph.17572)

Dubrovsky 2022: “Inconsistencies in the root biology terminology: Let’s communicate better”, Plant and Soil (doi:10.1007/s11104-022-05415-3)
Carmona et al. 2021: “Fine-root traits in the global spectrum of plant form and function”, Nature (doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03871-y)
Carley et al. 2022: “Root biology never sleeps”, New Phytologist (doi:10.1111/nph.18338)
Delory et al. 2022: “A snapshot of the root phenotyping landscape in 2021” bioRxiv (doi:10.1101/2022.01.28.478001)

Please nominate a recent publication from your group for featuring in the following newsletter!

Upcoming special issues on roots

Frontiers in Plant Science Research Topic on “Increasing crop yield: the interaction of crop plant roots with their environment” guest edited by Josefine Kant, Saoirse Tracy, Maria Hernandez-Soriano (FiPS special issue). Submissions are open until October 2022.
Plant & Soil special issue on “Below-ground storage organs” guest edited by Tobias Wojciechowski, Peter Gregory, Johannes Postma (P&S special issue). Submissions possible until January 2023.

TraitDivNet initiative seeking for participation

We recently combined aboveground and fine-root traits to characterize the functional space occupied by plants worldwide (Carmona et al. 2021). We found that aboveground and fine-root traits seem to be fundamentally decoupled, so that the aboveground phenotype of a species does not provide much information about its fine-root traits, selected species can be explored in this link: https://globaltrait.shinyapps.io/GlobalTraits/.

The definition of a single, universal, trait space allows for global analyses of the commonalities and differences between species, ecosystems and communities. However, these analyses are not possible without collecting trait information for more species, since currently only ca. 0.1% of the species in the global flora can be placed into this space.

To fill these knowledge and data gaps, we are launching TraitDivNet, a collaborative research initiative to characterize the functional structure of plant communities at a global scale. Participants in TraitDivNet will sample one 10x10m plot and measure aboveground and fine-root traits for the most abundant species (in total, no more than 70 individuals per plot). Sampling can take place in 2022 or in 2023. The TraitDivNet coordinators have secured funding to cover the costs of chemical analyses. Participants will be offered co-authorship (one co-author per contributed plot) in the publications resulting from this effort. We foresee that trait-based ecology will be largely benefited by a many-fold increase in the number of species for which fundamental above- and belowground traits are characterised.

If you want to know more about the initiative, please visit our webpage (https://macroecology.ut.ee/en/traitdivnet/), where you can download the detailed protocols and data sheets. If you have any question or want to join the initiative, please contact us at TraitDivNet@ut.ee, giving a brief description of the plot(s) you could sample (in terms of type of vegetation and a rough location).

Looking forward to a fruitful collaboration!

Carlos Perez Carmona and TraitDivNet Steering Committee

Interesting Meeting upcoming

10th International Symposium on Root Development (Rooting 2023) in Gent, Belgium, on 18-23 May 2023 (conference website)

Please let us know if another interesting conference, ideally featuring a section about roots, is coming up so that we can promote the meeting on our website and in the next newsletters.

Follow ISRR News on Twitter account @RootScientists

News from ISRR members is featured on Twitter in an account hosted jointly with the International Plant Phenotyping Network (IPPN) Root Phenotyping Working Group. Have a look for insights into ongoing root research and phenotyping, shared by members of either group and feel free to tweet and retweet us!

If you would like to announce something or give feedback to the newsletter or the web site, please write an email to our official address (isrr@fz-juelich.de). Of course you can also retract your agreement to receiving this e-bulletin in the future.

Kind regards,

Dr. Josefine Kant (née Nestler) and Prof. Michelle Watt, ISRR President,

On behalf of the ISRR Executive and Executive Secretary Ulrike Mathesius

Newsletter September 2021

Special notion on ISRR newsletter

Root biology never sleeps

Symposium meeting report summary, submitted for review to New Phytologist as Carley et al. (author list see below).

ISRR11 and Rooting2021: a joint, virtual meeting

In response to the challenging global restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 11th Symposium of the International Society of Root Research (ISRR11) https://www.rootresearch.org/ and the 9th International Symposium on Root Development (Rooting2021) merged into a single online event co-organized by the Interdisciplinary Plant Group at the University of Missouri (Columbia, USA) and the University of Nottingham (UK) (https://bit.ly/32bNZ17). Over 700 participants representing academia, government and industry from +53 countries joined the virtual event held May 24th-28th 2021. The schedule ran almost uninterrupted across international time zones, featuring 74 talks (10 plenaries, 16 keynotes, and 48 invited) and approximately 300 posters, and spanned a broad range of disciplines. In addition, the 2021 ISRR Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Wendy Silk, Emeritus Professor at the University of California-Davis, who gave a lecture on her research career. The ISRR11/Rooting2021 meeting covered recent advances of root research from molecular to ecosystem-level scales in agricultural and natural systems, hosted technical presentations, posters and industry exhibits, and presented a root phenotyping workshop.

The Ambassador program

ISRR11/Rooting2021 hosted the 3rd Ambassador Program (Box 1), a unique platform for early-career root researchers created by John Kirkegaard and Hayley at the ISRR9 Meeting held in 2015 in Australia. The Ambassador program provided networking activities, training on the organization of scientific events, interaction with professionals in diverse career areas, and opportunities to discuss advances in the field. As it gains momentum, the field of root research brings together an increasingly broad range of disciplines. This was well-reflected in the enthusiasm and cooperation between the multidisciplinary Ambassador cohort. Ambassador tasks included organized note-taking across time zones and the production of this meeting report. Other valuable contributions were a set of recommendations for diversity and inclusion in future scientific events (Box 2), and a root phenotyping survey that showcased both the present importance and the promising future of the field (Box 3). Additionally, the Ambassadors discussed positive aspects of the virtual format for accessibility, i.e. ability for participants with economic or family constraints to attend and provision of live captions to facilitate communication.

Concluding remarks and perspectives

To meet the challenges imposed by the global Covid-19 pandemic, online communication has provided new opportunities for international multidisciplinary cooperation. The demand for, and rapid development of, resources and platforms to support this has prompted the scientific community to adopt new channels of work. For root researchers, the ISRR11/Rooting2021 online event was crucial to share knowledge on the latest developments in root and rhizosphere research, to present new technological advances and to identify pressing research questions that still need to be answered. Through this report, we would like to highlight the need to advance our knowledge of rhizosphere processes. Root researchers aim to provide answers to the many challenges facing agriculture, beyond the well-studied supply of macronutrients and water. In addition, root research can offer unique perspectives in response to global climate change, including strategies to reduce greenhouse gases. Accordingly, the growing interest in root phenotyping to identify optimal root traits in particular environments and how these traits relate to ecological functions has been highlighted throughout the root phenotyping section as well as by the results of our root phenotyping survey. Moreover, we highlight the need to explore multiple root phenotypes that may work synergistically rather than independently. The adoption of a holistic approach to root research, i.e. one that takes into account all categories of root traits, from anatomy to root morphology, physiology and architecture, as well as interactions with the rhizosphere microbiota, could be the seed for a new green revolution. For this purpose, root research requires the development of standardized, affordable and high-resolution methods that would allow researchers to non-destructively monitor root system traits and rhizosphere processes. We encourage root researchers to actively take advantage of the plethora of online resources currently available for plant phenotyping (https://quantitative-plant.org/), and to join the International Society of Root Research (https://www.rootresearch.org/) to keep root biology alive. We believe that developing collaborations to share knowledge and existing phenotyping platforms or to develop new technological advances will help us answer complex and pressing research questions to further our understanding of roots and rhizosphere processes.

Author list: Clayton Carley, Guanying Chen, Krishna K. Das, Benjamin M. Delory, Anastazija Dimitrova, Yiyang Ding, Abin P George, Laura A. Greeley, Qingqing Han, Pieter-Willem Hendriks, Maria C. Hernandez-Soriano, Meng Li, Jason Liang Pin Ng, Lisa Mau, Jennifer Mesa-Marín, Allison Miller, Angus Rae, Jennifer Schmidt, August Thies, Christopher N. Topp, Tomke S. Wacker, Pinhui Wang, Xinyu Wang, Limeng Xie, Congcong Zheng

Newsletter February 2021

Special Newsletter of the International Society for Root Research

Joint Virtual Meeting of ISSR11 (11th Symposium of the International Society of Root Research) and ROOTING2021 (9th International Symposium on Root Development)

May 24-28, 2021

By Bob Sharp and Malcolm Bennett, on behalf of the Organizing Committees

Due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic on travel, the previously announced collaboration between ISRR11 and ROOTING2021will now be a joint, entirely virtual meeting – “Root Biology Never Sleeps”. The joint meeting is being co-organized by the Interdisciplinary Plant Group at the University of Missouri, Columbia, USA, and the University of Nottingham, UK. Full details are available at the joint meeting website.

This joint meeting will bring together the global root research community to foster exchange and discuss new discoveries, developments, and challenges in root biology. The meeting will address root research across different scales from the molecular- to the ecosystem-level in agricultural and natural systems.

An updated schedule for the joint meeting has been arranged to maximize opportunities for live engagement by participants from around the world. The provisional program, which presents the schedule in Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST), British Summer Time (BST), and US Central Daylight Time (CDT), with each also referenced to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), is available here. All talks will be pre-recorded, but will be presented according to the scheduled times and followed by a live Q&A session with the speaker.

Similarly, multiple poster sessions have been arranged to accommodate the different time zones of participants from around the globe. Posters will be accompanied by short pre-recorded talks, and the poster sessions will include opportunities for live interaction with presenters.

The joint meeting will feature a single registration that provides access to all talks, posters and other activities:

- Faculty/PI/Industry: US$150

- Postdoctoral Fellows: US$100

- Graduate & Undergraduate Students: US$50

- Developing Country Participants: free (https://unctad.org/topic/least-developed-countries/list)

The opening of the joint meeting will feature the Trends in Plant Science Plenary Lecture by Amelia Henry (International Rice Research Institute, Philippines) and the ISRR Award Presentation and Lecture by Wendy Silk (University of California-Davis).

The program will also feature additional plenary speakers (in order of the program):

Tiina Roose (University of Southampton, UK)
Jonathan Lynch (Pennsylvania State University, USA)
Joseph Dubrovsky (UNAM, Mexico)
Xavier Draye (UCLouvain, Belgium)
Ross Sozzani (North Carolina State University, USA)
Yusuka Uga (Institute of Crop Science, National Agriculture and Food Research Institution, Japan)
Caroline Gutjahr (LMU Munich, Germany)
Malcolm Bennett (University of Nottingham, UK)
Steve Tyerman (University of Adelaide, Australia)

Scientific session themes and invited keynote speakers include (in order of the program):

Hormones and Root System Architecture. Karin Ljung (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences-Umeå, Sweden) - Frontiers in Plant Science Lecture
Root Morphogenesis.Bert de Rybel (Ghent University, Belgium) - EMBO Young Investigator Lecture
Water and Nutrient Relations. Anna Amtmann (University of Glasgow, UK)
Food Roots.(To be determined)
Root Stress Biology.Melissa Mitchum (University of Georgia, USA)
Root Ecosystem Services / Perennial Root Systems. Tim Crews (The Land Institute, USA)
Responses to Abiotic Constraints.Christa Testerink (Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands)
Modelling of Root and Rhizosphere Processes.Andrea Schnepf (Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany)
Technologies to Image Root Functions. Steven Siciliano (University of Saskatchewan, Canada)
Root-Microbe Interactions.Yang Bai (Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)
Root and Root System Development.Phanchita Vejchasarn (Ubon Ratchathani Rice Research Center, Thailand)
Root Biotic Interactions. Gabriel Castrillo (University of Nottingham, UK) - The Plant Journal Keynote Lecture
Grafted Root Systems and Intra-Plant Communication. Charles Melnyk (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences-Uppsala, Sweden) - Frontiers in Plant Science Lecture
Root-Soil Interface.Colleen Iversen (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA)
Underground Communication.Ulrike Mathesius (Australian National University, Australia)
Root Phenotyping Approaches Spanning Lab to Field. Chris Topp (Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, USA)

Each session will include several additional talks, which will be selected from submitted abstracts.

The final day of the meeting will feature coordinated Root Phenotyping Workshops, which are being organized by Darren Wells (University of Nottingham, UK) and Larry York (Noble Research Institute, USA). There will also be a Poster & Speaker Awards Ceremony.

Continuing the tradition established at the 2015 ISRR meeting, a pre-symposium “Graduate Student & Postdoc Ambassador Program” will be held in conjunction with the joint meeting. The Ambassador Program will provide root research and training opportunities for approximately 20 early career researchers from around the world. Activities will include the publication of a meeting report in New Phytologist, which is providing generous support for the program. The Ambassador Program is being organized by Chris Topp (Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, USA) and Allison Miller (St Louis University, USA) together with graduate student and postdoc members of the organizing committee. Further details, including application procedures and deadlines, are provided on the website.

There will be special issues of several journals with content from both meetings:

Frontiers in Plant Science – Root Development. Co-Editors: Anthony Bishopp (University of Nottingham, UK); Charles Melnyk (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences-Uppsala, Sweden); Phanchita Vejchasarn (Ubon Ratchathani Rice Research Center, Thailand)
Physiologia Plantarum – Abiotic/Biotic Stress. Co-Editors: Gabriel Castrillo (University of Nottingham, UK); Ari Sadanandom (Durham University, UK); Bob Sharp (University of Missouri, USA)
Plant, Cell & Environment – Root Phenotypes for the Future. Co-Editors: Anna Amtmann (University of Glasgow, UK); Malcolm Bennett (University of Nottingham, UK); Amelia Henry (International Rice Research Institute, Philippines)

The Co-Editors welcome enquiries from authors to write a review for these specially-themed issues. We also encourage authors to submit original research papers to be considered for publication as part of these special issues. Please see the meeting website for the latest details.

Registration for the joint meeting is now open. Registration details, abstract submission procedures and deadlines, and meeting updates are available at the joint meeting website.

Also follow the meetings on Twitter and Facebook:

We look forward to welcoming you to the joint meeting of ISRR11and ROOTING2021!

On behalf of the Organizing Committees,

Newsletter of the International Society of Root Research, December 2020

Dear Members of the International Society of Root Research,

Feature article: Joint Online meetings of ISRR11 (11th Symposium of the International Society of Root Research) and ROOTING2021 (9th International Symposium on Root Development)

By Bob Sharp and Malcolm Bennett, on behalf of the Organizing Committees

The organizing committees of Rooting 2021 (https://rooting2021.com) and ISRR11 (http://isrr11.org/) have decided to hold both meetings as virtual-only conferences next year, 24-28 May 2021. As addressed earlier, several sessions will be shared and as much live interaction as feasible is a major aim. To achieve this, the different time zones of participants will be considered as much as possible.

A full meeting launch including information on registration time lines, costs, poster and abstract guidelines, etc. is expected for January 2021.

The Organizing Committees,

Feature publications

De Bauw et al. 2020: “A functional-structural model of upland rice root systems reveals the importance of laterals and growing root tips for phosphate uptake from wet and dry soils” (doi:10.1093/aob/mcaal120)
Jha et al. 2020: “Long non-coding RNAs: emerging players regulating plant abiotic stress response and adaptation” (doi:10.1186/s12870-020-02595-x)
Bodner et al. 2019: “Characterization of cover crop rooting types from integration of rhizobox imaging and root atlas information” (doi:10.3390/plants8110514)
Upcoming book release “Understanding and improving crop root function” edited by Prof Peter Gregory, former President of the ISRR. The publisher Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing has offered to give all ISRR members an exclusive discount on the Hardback version of the book (ISBN-13: 9781786763600). Please see the news section for discount details.

Please nominate a recent publication from your group for featuring in the following newsletter!

Other interesting meetings upcoming next year

8th International Symposium on Root Structure and Function in the High Tatras mountain region of the Slovak Republic, on 12-16 Sept 2021 (conference website)

Please let us know if another interesting conference, ideally featuring a section about roots, is coming up so that we can promote the meeting on our website and in the next newsletters.

Follow ISRR News on Twitter account @RootScientists

We wish you peaceful and healthy 2021 and hope to see many of you (virtually) at ISRR11 & ROOTING2021.

Kind regards,

Dr. Josefine Kant (née Nestler) and Prof. Michelle Watt, ISRR President,

On behalf of the ISRR Executive and Executive Secretary Ulrike Mathesius

Newsletter of the International Society of Root Research, July 2020

Dear Members of the International Society of Root Research,

We would like to welcome you to our next ISRR newsletter, designed to stimulate global communication and advancement of plant root science and inform you about ongoing activities within the root research community and the ISRR. Feel free to share this newsletter with others, ISRR members and non-members.

Feature article: Linked meetings of ISSR11 (11th Symposium of the International Society of Root Research) and ROOTING2021 (9th International Symposium on Root Development)

By Bob Sharp and Malcolm Bennett, on behalf of the Organizing Committees

We are pleased to inform you of an exciting development surrounding the planning for ISRR11, which will be held on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, USA, from May 24-28, 2021 (http://isrr11.org/). ISRR11 will feature a unique collaboration with the rescheduled ROOTING2021, which will be held at the University of Nottingham, UK, on the same dates (https://rooting2021.com). The ROOTING meeting was originally scheduled for June 2020, but was postponed because of the global pandemic. To facilitate bringing together the international root research community, the two organizing committees enthusiastically agreed to link the meetings by holding them concurrently and sharing key components that include:

Live-streaming of a number of invited speakers and full sessions
Special issues of several journals with content from both meetings
Shared activities, including funding support for early-career researchers

At present, we hope that both meetings will be held in person. However, the organizing committees are also developing plans to take the meetings online or allow for some online participation, if this becomes necessary due to travel limitations related to the pandemic.

The session themes of ISRR11 include (*shared full session with ROOTING2021):

Root and root system development • Root phenotyping approaches spanning lab to field • Root stress biology • Food roots • The root-soil interface • Underground communication • *Root-microbe interactions • *Water and nutrient relations • Technologies to image root functions • Modelling of root and rhizosphere processes • *Grafted root systems and intra plant communication • Root Ecosystem Services/Perennial Root Systems.

ROOTING2021 includes sessions on (*shared full session with ISRR11):

Hormones and root system architecture • Root morphogenesis • *Nutrient and water uptake • *Root biotic interactions • *Grafting / re-generation • Root phenomics - “Hands on” demonstrations

The program of ISRR11 will include the following plenary and keynote speakers, with others to be added (*indicates live-shared speakers between the meetings):

*Anna Amtmann (Univ. Glasgow, UK)

*Malcolm Bennett (Univ. Nottingham, UK)

*Xavier Draye (UCLouvain, Belgium)

Joseph Dubrovsky (Natl. Autonomous Univ. of Mexico, Mexico)

*Caroline Gutjahr (LMU Munich, Germany)

*Jonathan Lynch (Penn State Univ., USA)

*Charles Melnyk (SLU Uppsala, Sweden)

Tiina Roose (Univ. Southampton, UK)

*Ross Sozzani (North Carolina State Univ., USA)

*Yusaku Uga (Natl. Ag. & Food Research Org., Japan)

Continuing the tradition established at the 2015 ISRR meeting, a pre-symposium “Graduate Student & Postdoc Ambassador Program” will be held in conjunction with ISRR11. The Ambassador Program will be based in St Louis, Missouri, and is being organized by Chris Topp (Donald Danforth Plant Science Center) and Allison Miller (St Louis University) together with graduate student and postdoc members of the ISRR organizing committee. Details, including application procedures, will be announced on the ISRR11 website as the program develops.

Symposium updates and deadlines for abstract submissions will be posted on the respective meeting websites. Also follow the meetings on Twitter and Facebook:

We look forward to welcoming you to ISRR11 at the University of Missouri and to ROOTING2021 at the University of Nottingham!

On behalf of the Organizing Committees,

Feature publications

Ephrath et al. 2020: “Exposing the hidden half: root research at the forefront of science” (doi:10.1007/s11104-019-04417-y)
De-Jesús-García et al. 2020. “The barrier function of plant roots: biological bases for selective uptake and avoidance of soil compounds” (doi.org/10.1071/FP19144)
Zhou et al. 2020: “Decoupled drought responses of fine-root versus leaf acquisitive traits among six Prunus hybrids” (doi.org/10.1093/jpe/rtaa015)

Please nominate a recent publication from your group for featuring in the following newsletter!

Some interesting meetings upcoming next year

International Conference on Digital Technologies for Sustainable Crop Production- DIGICROP 2020. Online conference on 1-10 Nov 2020 (conference website)
8th International Symposium on Root Structure and Function in the High Tatras mountain region of the Slovak Republic, on 6-10 Sept 2021 (conference website)

Please let us know if another interesting conference, ideally featuring a section about roots, is coming up so that we can promote the meeting on our website and in the next newsletters.

ISRR now listed in the yearbook of the Union of International Associations (UIA)

The ISRR is now searchable in the online yearbook of UIA (https://uia.org/s/or/en/1100049762).

Follow ISRR News on Twitter account @RootScientists

Kind regards,

Dr. Josefine Kant (née Nestler) and Prof. Michelle Watt, ISRR President,

On behalf of the ISRR Executive and Executive Secretary Ulrike Mathesius

Newsletter October 2019

Dear Members of the International Society of Root Research,

We would like to welcome you to our eighth ISRR newsletter, designed to stimulate global communication and advancement of plant root science and inform you about ongoing activities within the root research community and the ISRR. Feel free to share this newsletter with others, ISRR members and non-members.

Feature article: The International Root Phenotyping Working Group

By Saoirse Tracy

The International Root Phenotyping Working Group is a special interest group within the International Plant Phenotyping Network (IPPN). It was established in 2015 and is open to all who are interested in the broad theme of root phenotyping.

The Root Phenotyping Working Group aims to:

be a forum to identify the scientific and technical boundaries of root phenotyping

advance root phenotyping, to speed up use for global agricultural and environmental challenges

If you are interested in joining the mailing list please email saoirse.tracy@ucd.ie. The group have held at least one annual event as a satellite meeting every year. Venue locations include Mexico, Missouri, Adelaide, Israel, Oklahoma, China and our next planned event is in Nottingham. If you are hosting a root phenotyping event and would like to propose a satellite meeting, please contact the group. For early-career researchers we often have travel grants available to attend these meetings. To date we have been able to give over €8250 in travel grants to root meetings to early-career researchers. We work closely with the ISRR and hope to expand our membership over the next year.

Prof. Saoirse Tracy, University College Dublin

Youtube channel for ISRR10

With permission of speakers, several talks at the ISRR10 in Israel last July were videotaped and are available on youtube. The channel is called ISRR2018 and can be found by following this link.

Website for ISRR11 available now

Although still more than a year away, the website for the 11th symposium of the International Society of Root Research was launched by the organizers surrounding Bob Sharp from University of Missouri. Following this link will bring you to the conference website.

Feature publications

Xiao et al. 2019: “Lateral root formation involving cell division in both pericycle, cortex and endodermis is a common and ancestral trait in seed plants.” (doi:10.1242/dev.182592)
He et al. 2019: “Effects of root cooling on plant growth and fruit quality of cocktail tomato during two consecutive seasons” (doi.org/10.1155/2019/3598172)
Torres-Martínez et a. 2019: “Lateral root primordium morphogenesis in angiosperms” (doi:10.3389/fpls.2019.00206)
Bardhan et al. 2018: “Revealing the effects of Potassium on rice roots under moisture stress” (Better Crops/Vol102-2018)

Please nominate a recent publication from your group for featuring in the following newsletter!

Some interesting meetings upcoming in the next months

3rd international training course and workshop on ‘Advanced Microscopy Techniques for Plant-microbe Interaction Analysis’ in Vienna/Tulln, Austria from 25-29November 2019 (conference website)
Interdrought 2020 in Mexico City, Mexico from 9-13 March 2020 (conference website)
8th International Symposium on Structure and Function of Roots in the High Tatras mountain region of the Slovak Republic, on 6-10 Sept 2020

Please let us know if another interesting conference, ideally featuring a section about roots, is coming up so that we can promote the meeting on our website and in the next newsletters.

Follow ISRR News on Twitter account @RootScientists

News from members of the International Society of Root Research is featured on Twitter in an account hosted jointly with the International Plant Phenotyping Network (IPPN) Root Phenotyping Working Group. Have a look for insights into ongoing root research and phenotyping, shared by members of either group and feel free to tweet and retweet us!

Kind regards,

Dr. Josefine Kant (née Nestler) and Prof. Michelle Watt, ISRR President,

On behalf of the ISRR Executive and Executive Secretary Ulrike Mathesius

Newsletter March 2019

Dear Members of the International Society of Root Research,

We would like to welcome you to our seventh ISRR newsletter, designed to stimulate global communication and advancement of plant root science and inform you about ongoing activities within the root research community and the ISRR. Feel free to share this newsletter with others, ISRR members and non-members.

SPECIAL FEATURE: Welcome message by Michelle Watt, new ISRR President

Dear Past and New members of the ISRR

I am very pleased to be able to write to you all as the new ISRR President, and look forward to serving the international root research community over the coming terms. It is a great honour to be taking over from Peter Gregory, who developed the ISRR to its current level of representing over 700 registered members, and bringing together researchers from around the world in highly recognised meetings every three years.

The recent ISRR10 meeting in Israel in July 2018 was superb with 330 participants from many countries around the world, further cementing the ISRR meetings as the global meeting of active root scientists. Thank you again to Joni Ephrath, Chair of ISRR2018, and his co-hosts. They have taken things one step further, and provided many of the talks presented at the meeting (and videoed) on a YouTube Channel. Attendees were informed and the wider community was informed via Twitter (@RootScientists).

It was clear at the ISRR10 meeting that the society has a strong group of junior researchers. As you know, we recognised founding members of the ISRR; Monika Sobotik, Peter Gregory and Alvin Schmucker (profiles on our webside), with the 10th Conference Award in Israel. In particular, they were extremely satisfied to see the high number of junior root scientists in the society. This number has grown in large part because of the Ambassador Program started by John Kirkegaard and Halley Thompson in Canberra in 2015, and continued to an even higher standard in Israel. We now look forward to ISRR11 in Missouri in 2021, to be hosted by Bob Sharp and colleagues.

Here in this message I would like to thank those that stepped down from the ISRR Executive, and welcome the new members to the ISRR Executive, elected as of the General Society meeting in Israel, July 12, 2018.

To those stepping down, thank you especially to: Alan Richardson, who was the Chair of the 2015 ISRR9 meeting in Canberra, and is now replaced as a co-opted member on the Executive by Joni Ephrath, in the role of current past conference host; and Phillipe Hinsinger, who helped in particular to arrange ISRR meetings to be offset from the well-attended Rhizosphere meetings and thus strengthening the below-ground community. Phillippe is replaced by Matthias Wissuwa, JIRCAS, Japan, who brings an active program in root trait discovery and deployment by breeding into rice, notably in Africa and other low fertility cropping systems. Thank you to Fusuo Zhang, who is replaced by Lixing Yuan, China Agriculture University, Beijing. Lixing and colleagues have already put up their hands to host ISRR12 in 2024, which is excellent news for the ISRR because China has yet to host a meeting. The final voting for the 2024 hosting will take place at the General meeting in 2021 in Missouri, and other nominations can come in until that time. Thank you to Jun Abe for his long and committed service as a vice-president. Jun Abe in particular is thanked for hosting the 2001 ISRR meeting in Nagoya, Japan. Jun Abe is replaced by Yoshaki Inukai, from Nagoya University of Japan, and focused on the plastic responses of roots in changing soil conditions.

Peter Gregory has kindly agreed to stay on the Executive as a Past Honorary President (as voted in Israel), in the role established when Hans Perrson stepped down. It is very helpful to have the immediate past president on the ISRR Executive for at least the first few years after stepping down. The remaining members of the Executive: Helja-Sisko Helmisaari, Simoneon Materechera, Jonathan Lynch, Natalie Obroucheva, Shigenori Morita, Joseph Dubrovsky and Amelia Henry, were re-elected in Isreal 2018.

Finally, I am pleased to announce that Uli Mathesius, Australia National University, Canberra, Australia, will take over as Executive Secretary.

One of the main things that Uli and I will work on is increasing the scientific engagement within and outside the society between ISRR meetings. To do this we are proposing to nominate ISRR Specialists from among society members, that are leaders in growing areas of root research. These Specialists will not be members of the Executive. Rather they will be invited to help build communication about key past and emerging research on hot topics in roots, that can be readily accessed by members and non-members through the ISRR website and other forms of communication. They will be visible in the community and beyond. More on this ISRR Specialist initiative later.

Please note that the Web Site will continue to be hosted from Jülich, with Josefine Kant, Forschungszentrum Jülich, managing content and Newsletters. The Newsletter was on hold as Josefine cares for her new born son. I am also pleased to introduce Ben Delory, University of Lüneburg, Germany. He approached me at the ISRR10 meeting to kindly offer help with ISRR communications and he is now heavily involved with the Twitter account.

Finally, I encourage you all to invite other scientists to join ISRR, and to pass on ideas, jobs, ‘hot topics in root research’, and papers that you would like to include in the Newsletters. For all the latest including images and events in Israel, please see: https://www.rootresearch.org.

Thank you again to retiring Executive members, and to all new members for your upcoming engagement.

Kind regards Michelle

Newsletters back on track

There has been a lack of ISRR newsletters in the last half year that was due to maternity leave of Josefine Kant. Now that she is back the quarterly newsletters will be resumed as before.

Youtube channel for ISRR10

With permission of speakers, several talks at the ISRR10 in Israel last July were videotaped and are available on youtube. The channel is called ISRR2018 and can be found by following this link.

Feature publications

Freeling et al. 2019: “How can we boost the impact of publications? Try better writing” (www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1819937116)
Shekoofa & Sinclair 2018: “Aquaporin Activity to Improve Crop Drought Tolerance” (www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/7/9/123)

Please nominate a recent publication from your group for featuring in the following newsletter!

Some interesting meetings upcoming in the next months

Rhizosphere 5 “Shining light on the world beneath our feet” at Saskatoon, Canada from 7-11 July 2019 (conference website)
4th International Brachypodium Conference in Huesca, Spain from 25-28 June 2019 (conference website)
21st International Congress on Nitrogen Fixation in Wuhan, China from 10-15 October, 2019 (conference website)
Workshop: Root phenotyping from field to lab. Noble Research Institute, Ardmore, OK, USA. 30 April-1 May, 2019; (conference website)

Please let us know if another interesting conference, ideally featuring a section about roots, is coming up so that we can promote the meeting on our website and in the next newsletters.

Follow ISRR News on Twitter account @RootScientists

Kind regards,

Dr. Josefine Kant (née Nestler) and Prof. Michelle Watt, ISRR President,

On behalf of the ISRR Executive and Executive Secretary Ulrike Mathesius

Newsletter April 2018

Dear Members of the International Society of Root Research,

We would like to welcome you to our sixth ISRR newsletter, designed to stimulate global communication and advancement of plant root science and inform you about ongoing activities within the root research community and the ISRR. Feel free to share this newsletter with others, ISRR members and non-members.

SPECIAL FEATURE: ROOTS of the ISRR and Recipients of the 10th Conference Celebratory Awards
The ISRR Meeting in Israel this July marks the 10th international conference of root researchers, organized and hosted by society members. The ISRR is the largest society of root scientists internationally (now over 500 members), with the primary function of bringing together the world’s scientists regularly to share the latest in root research.
To celebrate the 10th ISRR Meeting, four root researchers are recognized for making significant contributions to the success of the ISRR.

Read about contributions of the Awardees below and meet them at ISRR 10 in Israel!

Monika Sobotik, Root Scientist, Pflanzensoziologisches Institut, Bad Goisern, Austria
Dr Monika Sobotik is a co-founder of the International Society of Root Research who had very important contributions to the life and success of the Society through very active participation in organization of the first six ISRR Symposia between 1982 and 2001 and some subsequent Symposia. Together with Profs Drs Von Lore Kutschera and Erwin Lichtenegger she published a fundamental study on the morphology and anatomy of plant root systems (Wurzelatlas, 7 volumes) which is unique and invaluable source for all involved in the root research. This can be purchased from Amazon.
More information about her research can be found on her website.

Peter Gregory, Professor of Global Food Security, University of Reading, UK
Peter Gregory is an outstanding international driver of root research. His research made major contributions to the analysis of root architecture in the field and its contribution to crop yield, especially in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. His research into root-soil interaction via root exudates linked root biology with soil chemistry and physics and reflects his broad understanding of root biology that underpins his advocacy for this growing field.
Peter’s connections to ISRR go back to 1985. In 1985, he organised with John Lake and Derek Rose a meeting for the Society of Experimental Biology at Bangor on 'Root Development and Function' - this was later published as a book. In the final discussion of the meeting several participants enthused about this being an excellent forum (one of the first) for root researchers and Peter Barlow (who was one of the invited speakers) took this up with Hans Persson and the central role of the ISRR as a host of international meetings, emerged with the developing ISRR around that time.
In 2009, it was proposed that Peter should become President. Peter’s main aim as President has been to engage with all root researchers worldwide and to make the meeting the focal point of scientific advances in roots. This has been successful, especially by adding a genetic component to the congress and making the ISRR symposium one of the most important root meetings worldwide.
Read all about Peter and his publications at Researchgate.

Alvin JM Smucker, Professor of Soil Biophysics, Michigan State University, USA
Prof Alvin Smucker is awarded an ISRR Tenth Conference Celebratory Award because of his long-standing commitment to root research and his associated contributions to the ISRR. In addition to his research, Alvin supported the activities of the ISRR, from the beginning. He was elected Vice President of ISRR at the initial conference in Uppsala, Sweden in 1982, which he served until reorganization in 2012. He assisted James Box and Bobby McMichael at the conference held in the USA in 1996. He was a keynote speaker at the ISRR meeting in Japan in 2001 and again in Vienna in 2009. Behind the scenes he worked quietly to bring about change and to encourage a diverse, international Society. He formally became Executive Secretary at the General Meeting in 2012 but informally undertook that role from 2009 stepping down at the Canberra General Meeting in 2015.
Alvin is Professor of Soil Biophysics at Michigan State University where he was appointed as Assistant Professor in 1974 and achieved rapid promotion to full Professor in 1983. His research at that time was focussed on roots and their interactions with soil especially the complex interaction between roots, soil carbon, and soil structure – a theme that he has pursued for many years. Alvin has always combined his academic interests with practical improvements to methodologies; an essential element of progress in studying roots. Two methodologies particularly stand out. Firstly, the development of the hydropneumatic elutriation system for separating roots from soil in a standardised manner. This equipment is now copied and used around the world and has aided the work of many soil-based root researchers. Secondly, he was among the first to realise that the benefits of minirhizotrons would only be fully realised if an automated process were made available for analysing the images and ‘separating’ the roots from the soil. His lab was quick to develop root imaging software and offered this as a no cost service to other researchers.
Check his Researchgate account for Alvin’s publications

Hans Persson, Professor in Root Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
In 1982 Prof Dr Hans Persson founded the International Society of Root Research (ISRR) and served as elected President of the ISRR for 27 years, until 2009. He organized and co-organized 6 symposia in this time. The organization of symposia for a lively exchange of information between scientists of different nations and different climatic conditions has always been one of the main purposes of the ISRR. In addition, Hans Persson lead a large number of research projects and evaluated research in e.g. Austria, USA, UK, and Sweden, taken active part in more than 110 international scientific meetings (congresses, conferences, workshops, symposia) in more than 20 different countries with oral presentations, posters and introductory speeches and as leader of workshops and excursions. Also, he has been involved in organizing international symposia in Sweden, Austria, Kazakhstan, USA, and Japan with 200-400 participants.
More information about his publications can be found on Researchgate.

Prof Michelle Watt, Executive Secretary of the ISRR, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany

Final preparations for the ISRR 10 meeting in Israel in July 2018
Registration for the meeting is ongoing. From 5 June onwards, late registration with a slightly higher fee will be in place (registration). Further information can be found on the conference website, as well as on the ISRR website.

Feature publications

Zhukovskaya et al., 2018 “Global analysis of an exponential model of cell proliferation for estimation of cell cycle duration in the root apical meristem of angiosperms”; about the exponential model for determination of cell cycle time in the root apical meristem compared to the laborious 3H-thymidine method (Journal website).
A book: Elke Barbez and Daniela Ristova, Root Development: Methods and Protocols, Methods in Molecular Biology, Springer Science + Business Media (publisher’s website).

Please nominate a recent publication from your group for featuring in the following newsletter!

Some interesting meetings upcoming in the next months

3rd International Conference on Plant science and Physiology, 21-22 May 2018 in Osaka, Japan (conference website)
20th International Conference on Plant Biology, 14-15 June 2018 in Vienna, Austria (conference website)

Please let us know if another interesting conference, ideally featuring a section about roots, is coming up so that we can promote the meeting on our website and in the next newsletters.

Follow ISRR News on Twitter account @RootScientists
News from members of the International Society of Root Research is now featured on Twitter in an account (hosted jointly with the International Plant Phenotyping Network (IPPN) Root Phenotyping Working Group). Have a look for insights into ongoing root research and phenotyping, shared by members of either group and feel free to tweet and retweet us!

If you would like to announce something or give feedback to the newsletter or the web site, please write an email to our official address (isrr@fz-juelich.de). The next newsletter should be published in July 2018, after the ISRR10 conference. Of course you can also retract your agreement to receiving this e-bulletin in the future.

Kind regards,

Dr. Josefine Kant (née Nestler) and Prof. Michelle Watt,
on behalf of the ISRR President Prof. Peter Gregory and the ISRR Executive

Newsletter January 2018

Dear Members of the International Society of Root Research,

We would like to welcome you to our fifth ISRR newsletter, designed to stimulate global communication and advancement of plant root science and inform you about ongoing activities within the root research community and the ISRR. Feel free to share this newsletter with others, ISRR members and non-members.

Feature article: Jhonathan Ephrath about the ISRR Ambassador program at ISRR10 in Israel

The organizers of the upcoming ISRR10 meeting in Israel in July 2018 are happy to announce the continuation of the engagement of students initiated at the previous symposium (ISRR9 in Canberra 2015). A network of Student Ambassadors from around the world will stimulate student involvement and ensure the best possible experience for student participants. Fifteen outstanding students, selected by an international committee according to their academic records, will participate in a Pre-Conference Workshop, held between July 4 to July 7, 2018.

The program venue will be the French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands, the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Sede Boqer Campus of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, which is located in Israel’s Negev Desert. The program is fully sponsored including accommodation, meals, class enrollment, professionally guided field hikes and a sight-seeing trip. More details about this program, who is entitled to register, program time table, topics of the different classes and general information are given in the website of the ISRR10 conference.

The Ambassadors will provide input to the Organizing Committee regarding ideas to foster student engagement in root science, will be given exposure to co-chairs at the meeting, and will be matched with senior mentors. The goal is to build a legacy of confident, well-connected young science leaders to take root research forward.

The deadline for applications is Tuesday, March 20, 2018.

The aims of the program are:

To develop and refine the skills for promising young scientists required for plant root science.
To provide discussions, demonstrations and lectures by leading experts in the field of root research.
To enable and encourage students’ future collaborations and advanced research methods in the various fields that incorporate root and root-rhizosphere research.

To apply, please send your CV to Mrs. Nofar Asa, the Conference Administrator, at wolfsonn@bgu.ac.il

~ Jhonathan Ephrath, Ben-Gurion University

Abstract submission for the ISRR 10 meeting in Israel in July 2018:

Abstract submission will be open until February 14th 2018 and further information can be found on the conference website, as well as on the ISRR website.

Feature publications:

A recent publication by Pound et al. about “deep learning for multi-task plant phenotyping” (link) for automated high-throughput image processing for phenotyping.
Suggested by a new member: winter wheat variation in root length and diameter caused by drought stress (link) by Awad et al., can be accessed via the author’s Research gate site (Researchgate).

Please nominate a recent publication from your group for featuring in the following newsletter!

Some interesting meetings upcoming in the next months:

The 60th Annual Maize Genetics Conference 22-25 March 2018 in Saint-Malo, France (conference website)
3rd International Conference on Plant science and Physiology 21-22 May 2018 in Osaka, Japan (conference website)

Please let us know if other interesting conferences, ideally featuring a section about roots, is coming up so that we can promote the meeting on our website and in the next newsletters.

Follow ISRR News on Twitter account @RootScientists

News from members of the International Society of Root Research is now featured on Twitter in an account (hosted jointly with the International Plant Phenotyping Network (IPPN) Root Phenotyping Working Group). Have a look for insights into ongoing root research and phenotyping, shared by members of either group and feel free to tweet and retweet us!

If you would like to announce something or give feedback to the newsletter or the web site, please write an email to our official address (isrr@fz-juelich.de). The next newsletter should be published in April 2018. Of course you can also retract your agreement to receiving this e-bulletin in the future.

Kind regards,

Dr. Josefine Kant (née Nestler) and Prof. Michelle Watt,

on behalf of the ISRR President Prof. Peter Gregory and the ISRR Executive

Newsletter November 2017

Dear Members of the International Society of Root Research,

We would like to welcome you to our fourth ISRR newsletter, designed to stimulate global communication and advancement of plant root science and inform you about ongoing activities within the root research community and the ISRR. Feel free to share this newsletter with others, ISRR members and non-members.

Feature article: Hallie Thompson about the ISRR ambassador program at ISRR9 in Canberra

John Kirkegaard and Hallie Thompson founded the ISRR ambassador program at the 2015 ISRR9 “Roots Down Under” meeting in Canberra, Australia. The purpose of this program was to engage early career scientists in root biology and to bolster early career attendance at the international meeting.

24 students and postdocs were chosen as the inaugural ambassador program class. They represented 6 continents and numerous institutions and universities. The Program included: field day at Canberra research station, networking event with fellow ambassadors and select senior scientists, student and postdoc poster contest judged by ambassadors, and a crazy roots photo contest organized by the ambassadors for all attendees.

All ambassadors were paired with a mentor for the meeting and were encouraged to use this connection to request introductions to other scientists and to learn more about their mentor’s path to success. It can be difficult for students and post docs to afford travel to a meeting like this and their presence at the sessions is invaluable. Therefore, the program also provided scholarships to ambassador attendees. More surprisingly, the ambassador network also benefitted student attendees, as there was a group of peers that were able to introduce colleagues to other scientists. ~ Hallie J. Thompson (University of Missouri)

All ambassadors are encouraged to stay in touch and reunite at the upcoming ISRR10 meeting in Israel. Support for students/early career scientist will be available at ISRR10, and more information will be provided in the next newsletter (estimated January 2018).

Abstract submission for the ISRR 10 meeting in Israel in July 2018:

Abstract submission will be open until February 28th 2018 and further information can be found on the conference website, as well as on the ISRR website.

Feature publications:

A special invited paper about “Visualization of extracellular DNA released during border cell separation from the root cap” published in AJB (website) by Fushi Wen et al. highlighting DNA excretion during root development.
A recent paper proving “Root hairs enable high transpiration rates in drying soils” in New Phytologist (link), by Andrea Carminati et al. combining transpiration measurements with barley root hair phenotypes.

Please nominate a recent publication from your group for featuring in the following newsletter!

Some interesting meetings upcoming in the next months:

The 60th Annual Maize Genetics Conference 22-25 March 2018 in Saint-Malo, France (conference website)
3rd International Conference on Plant science and Physiology 21-22 May 2018 in Osaka, Japan (conference website)

Please let us know if other interesting conferences, ideally featuring a section about roots, is coming up so that we can promote the meeting on our website and in the next newsletters.

Follow ISRR News on Twitter account @PlantRootScientists

News from members of the International Society of Root Research is now featured on Twitter in an account (hosted jointly with the International Plant Phenotyping Network (IPPN)). Have a look for insights into ongoing research shared by members of either group and feel free to tweet and retweet us.

If you would like to announce something or give feedback to the newsletter or the web site, please write an email to our official address (isrr@fz-juelich.de). The next newsletter should be published in January 2018. Of course you can also retract your agreement to receiving this e-bulletin in the future.

Kind regards,

Dr Josefine Kant (née Nestler) and Prof Michelle Watt,

on behalf of the ISRR President Prof Peter Gregory and the ISRR Executive

Newsletter July 2017

Dear Members of the International Society of Root Research,

We would like to welcome you to our third ISRR newsletter, designed to stimulate global communication and advancement of plant root science and inform you about ongoing activities within the root research community and the ISRR. Feel free to share this newsletter with others, ISRR members and non-members.

Feature article: Prof. Michelle Watt gives 2017 Dundee Medal Lecture

Michelle Watt, Executive Secretary of the ISRR, was recently awarded the Dundee Medal and gave the awarding Lecture at the James Hutten Institute, Dundee Scotland May 24, 2017.

The ISRR Dundee Medal Lecture is awarded annually to an international scientist recognized to have made a major contribution to plant root research. Selection of the awardee is based on nomination, voting and support from the ISRR. Michelle Watt is the third international root researcher to win this award. The two previous winners were Prof. Peter Gregory (2016) and Prof. Jonathan Lynch (2015). The elected root researcher gives a talk at the James Hutton Institute (JHI) in Dundee, Scotland (see details here for Michelle’s talk). The JHI is an Agricultural Sciences Institute with 700 employees focusing on crop and animal agricultural sustainability.

This lecture series is intended to last 10 years. The concept originated from Dr. Blair McKenzie, to create a legacy from the 2012 ISRR meeting (ISRR 8) held in Dundee, Scotland, by bringing world-leading root researchers to Dundee. Typically, the afternoon leads up to the medal lecture, commencing with 3 or 4 short 'early-career researcher' (normally postdoc-level) talks, followed by 1 minute pico-presentations and a (primarily PhD-student) poster session with refreshments. The afternoon meeting is intended to give root researchers a chance to meet together informally and encourage collaboration and interest in root research, and discussions the visiting lecturer and other attendees (see photos above, provided by the JHI).

Abstract submission for the ISRR 10 meeting is open:

You can now submit an abstract for the next ISRR meeting which will be in Israel next July, 2018. Abstract submission will be open until February 28th 2018 and further information can be found on the conference website, as well as on the ISRR website.

Feature publication:

This publication focusses on epigenetics and its manifestation in tissue-specific DNA methylation. It is entitled “Unique cell-type-specific patterns of DNA methylation in the root meristem (Link).

Please nominate a recent publication from your group for featuring in the following newsletter!

Some interesting meetings upcoming in the next months:

3rd global summit on Plant Science in Rome, Italy from 7-9 Aug 2017

Please let us know if other interesting conferences, ideally featuring a section about roots, is coming up so that we can promote the meeting on our website and in the next newsletters.

Follow ISRR News on Twitter account @RootScientists

If you would like to announce something or give feedback to the newsletter or the web site, please write an email to our official address (isrr@fz-juelich.de). The next newsletter should be published in October 2017. Of course you can also retract your agreement to receiving this e-bulletin in the future.

Kind regards,

Dr. Josefine Kant (née Nestler) and Prof. Michelle Watt,

on behalf of the ISRR President Prof. Peter Gregory and the ISRR Executive

Newsletter April 2017

Dear Members of the International Society of Root Research,

We would like to welcome you to our second ISRR newsletter, designed to stimulate global communication and advancement of plant root science and inform you about ongoing activities within the root research community and the ISRR. Feel free to share this newsletter with others, ISRR member or not.

Feature article by the President Peter Gregory about next year’s ISRR10:

Peter Gregory, president of the ISRR, has visited the site and organizing committee of the next ISRR meeting recently and here are his impressions:

I have just returned from a visit to Israel with the team that is organising our next conference. The preparations are in excellent hands with all of the venues chosen and most of the invited speakers already agreed. It’s going to be a week to remember with stimulating presentations and opportunities to visit sites of active root research and historical importance.

The main venue will be the Yearim Hotel located in the attractive Jerusalem Hills about 30 minutes by car from the city. The hotel is well-practised at hosting scientific meetings and has all the facilities required for plenary and concurrent sessions as well as a sizeable lobby for poster presentations.

On the fourth day of the conference we shall be going on tours. In the morning, there is a choice of five tours to see aspects of root research underway in Israel. I had the opportunity to visit research at Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; I’m sure that you’ll be impressed whichever tour you choose to go on. In the afternoon, we shall be visiting some of the historical sites in Jerusalem, and in the evening we shall eat together in a magnificent hall with wonderful views of the city walls and Jaffa Gate (see photos).

So, please put the dates in your diary and prepare for another memorable ISRR conference with our Israeli hosts. More details are available on the conference website and the call for abstracts and for pre-registration will be appearing during June.

Peter Gregory

The ISRR community is expanding:

Since the last newsletter, the ISRR has reached a size of 392 members residing in 57 different countries. As suggested, we have added the residence country for our members on to the members tab of the website.

Feature publication:

Recently, a RNA sequencing paper was published presenting the transcriptome of maize root hairs and highlighting the tremendous differences to the accustomed model plant Arabidopsis.

Some interesting meetings upcoming in the next months:

Rooting 2017 in Umea, Sweden from 29 May - 1 June 2017
IPG 2017 in Missouri, USA from 7-9 June 2017
3rd global summit on Plant Science in Rome, Italy from 7-9 Aug 2017

Others:

For the Interdisciplinary Plant Group (IPG 2017) Root biology meeting in Missouri a Travel grant from the Root Phenotyping Working Group of the International Plant Phenotyping Network (IPPN) is available for students or early-career postdocs, application until beginning of May. Application forms can be send to Saoirse Tracy (email).

On May 18th the forth Fascination of plants day will be celebrated all around the world. Check the website to find out about interesting events close to you or add your own activities.

If you would like to announce something or give feedback to the newsletter or the web site, please write an email to the official address (isrr@fz-juelich.de). Of course you can also retract your agreement to receiving this e-bulletin in the future.

Kind regards,

Dr. Josefine Nestler and Prof. Michelle Watt,

on behalf of the ISRR President Prof. Peter Gregory and the ISRR Executive

Welcome letter February 2017

Dear Members of the International Society of Root Research,

We would like to welcome you to our new web site and our first ISRR newsletter, designed to stimulate global communication and advancement of plant root science. The ISRR is the largest international root research society with 359 members residing in 54 different countries, as of January 2017 (see graph below).

In December of 2016, the hosting of the ISRR website transferred to the Forschungszentrum Juelich, Germany, with ISRR Executive Secretary Prof. Michelle Watt and her colleagues, after residing in excellent hands with the James Hutton Institute (previously Scottish Crop Research Institute), Scotland, with Prof. Glyn Bengough and his team.
The design of the website has been renewed, maintaining the general spirit and content. We welcome feedback from users around how it can be expanded and enhanced. The website is still and will continue to be accessible at www.rootresearch.org.

The function of the website has been in the past designed to give information about upcoming ISRR meetings (the next one will be in Israel in 2018). In the future we plan to use it to broaden the activities of the ISRR, and to help the society to connect root researchers world-wide.
To achieve more active communication, a quarterly newsletter will be circulated to all members – this being the first one.
If you would like to announce something or give feedback to the newsletter or the web site, please write an email to the official address (isrr@fz-juelich.de). Of course you can also retract your agreement to receiving this e-bulletin in the future.

Some interesting meetings upcoming in the first half of 2017:

Rooting 2017 in Umea, Sweden from 29 May - 1 June 2017
http://rooting2017.upsc.se/

IPG 2017 in Missouri, USA from 7-9 June 2017
https://ipg.missouri.edu/symposium/

Manuscripts:

Our first contribution from an ISRR member to share among the community is a paper about machine learning for improved root phenotyping:
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2016.01864

Technology:

OpenSimRoot, a 3D architectural plant model for simulating root growth over time in dependence of soil conditions, is now available (www.rootresearch.org and http://rootmodels.gitlab.io/).

Others:

In order to strengthen communication within the root community we are currently working on a twitter account for the ISRR in cooperation with Root Phenotyping community of the IPPN (International plant phenotyping network) for up-to-date news.

Kind regards and a wonderful 2017,

Prof. Michelle Watt and Dr. Josefine Nestler,

on behalf of the ISRR President Prof. Peter Gregory and the ISRR Executive