Symposia

24^th Plant Biology Symposium – Plant Specialized Metabolites: Synthesis, Regulation, & Function

June 24-26, 2025
University Park, PA

Plant specialized metabolites are chemically diverse molecules that play a broad range of critical roles in plant health and reproduction. These molecules also support human and veterinary health and nutrition, and are foundational to ecological interactions between animals, microorganisms, and plants. In June 2025, Penn State’s Plant Biology Graduate Program will host a symposium—the 24th in the series at Penn State—on Plant Specialized Metabolites that will bring together international leaders in the field and serve as a dynamic platform to promote the exchange of ideas in diverse fields related to synthesis, regulation, & function of plant metabolites.

Plenary presentations and shorter format talks will cover state-of-the-science concerning specialty metabolites. Poster and oral presentations will be selected from submitted abstracts, and there will be ample time for informal discussions and networking among attendees.

To view symposium details, Click here for the event summary.

Past Symposia

May 18-20, 2022

RNA research is currently receiving world-wide recognition with recent breakthroughs in RNAi and CRISPR, not to mention the first mRNA-based vaccines. In 2022, Penn State hosted an RNA biology symposium with a special emphasis on plants.

Topics covered included small RNAs, RNA structure, RNA processing, localization, translation, and epigenetics, and interconnections to the roles that RNA plays in plant growth, development, physiology, defense, and abiotic stress response. The conference featured established and emerging leaders in all aspects of plant RNA biology, who presented on the latest biological and technological advances in this exciting field. Short talks were chosen on the basis of submitted abstracts, and there was time for informal discussions and poster presentations.

June 18-21, 2019

Since 2012, the plant cell biology community has organized an annual "plant cell dynamics" meeting with the objective of bringing together plant cell biologists from around the world in a highly interactive forum for presenting the latest advances in plant cell biology and for learning new tools and approaches. In 2019, the Plant Cell Dynamics meeting was held as part of the Penn State Plant Biology Symposium series.

June 19 - 22, 2018

A phytobiome is a system of plants, animals (insects and nematodes) and a wide diversity of microbes (viruses, bacteria, fungi, oomycetes, amoeba, and algae). These organisms are influenced by the non-living components of their environment, such as soil and climate. The complex components of these systems greatly influence various plant functional traits such as plant health, productivity, and response to pathogens, pests and environmental stresses. Understanding the composition, dynamics, traits and interactions among individual constituents of these diverse systems requires basic and applied research efforts and innovative approaches by interdisciplinary teams with diverse expertise.

This symposium served as a platform to catalyze new interactions and exchange of ideas in the areas of basic and applied phytobiome research.

May 13-16, 2015

Human population growth and climate change present major challenges to sustainable food production. Plant biologists are developing and applying new integrative Big Data approaches to address these challenges. This symposium brought together scientists who were working at various –omics levels to understand impacts of environmental stress on plants and to develop solutions for agricultural systems of the future.

This Plant Biology symposium, the 20th in a series at Penn State, served as a platform to catalyze new interactions and exchange ideas in the diverse fields of plant –omics and plant-related microbial -omics, including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and their integration. The symposium included a workshop on metabolomics and mass spectrometry techniques and a workshop on plant genome editing with CRISPR-Cas9.

May 16-18, 2013

This conference dealt with frontier research in the structure of cellulose in primary and secondary cell walls, the mechanism of its synthesis and its interaction with matrix polymers, and new uses of cellulose for energy and material applications. Disciplinary approaches range from molecular genetics, cell biology, physical chemistry and plant physiology to material science, computational biology, chemical engineering, bioinformatics and other ways of understanding this most useful of materials.

May 18-21, 2011

The symposium convened international leaders in the areas of plant genetics, genomics, and evolutionary biology. Distinguished plenary lectures as well as ample time for informal interactions and poster sessions enabled students and researchers to make connections in this exciting frontier of research. Several short talks were selected on the basis of submitted poster abstracts.

May 19-21, 2009

The symposium featured leading experts on global change impacts on plant resource interactions. It was structured with plenty of time for informal interaction. Speakers and participants explored knowledge gaps and emerging ideas and discussed future research needs.

A primary motivation for this plant symposium was to synthesize current understanding of soil resource acquisition and utilization by plants in the context of climate change and from there, explore the cascading effects on ecosystem processes, including impacts on agriculture, and food security.

May 18-20, 2006

May 20-22, 2004

May 16-18, 2002

Proceedings were published in The Plant Cell

May 18-20, 2000

Proceedings were published in Plant Physiology

May 28-30, 1998