Strasburger Hot Topic Symposium 2024

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The recent Strasburger Hot Topic Symposium on "Co- and Post-translational Control in Chloroplasts" was held at the University of Münster in November 2024. It brought together more than 50 researchers from six countries to discuss the latest developments in control of chloroplast functions and on advances in our understanding of co- and post-translational modifications, protein interactions, and stress responses within chloroplasts.

34 Early Career Researchers (ERCs), including MSc and PhD students as well as postdoctoral fellows, participated at the conference free of charge. A travel stipend from FESPB enabled the attendance of two ERCs from Italy. In addition, the conference was co-financed via a module workshop from a DFG-ANR research grant to invite 10 renowned speakers. 12 ECRs gave oral presentations on their research and received vivid feedback from senior colleagues.

Several key areas dominated the scientific program, especially the activity and evolution of RuBisCO, the regulation of cyclic electron transfer as well as co- and post-translational modifications, protein interactions, and stress reactions within chloroplasts. Researchers shared their latest results on critical regulatory mechanisms, shedding light on complex phenomena such as protein stability, enzyme activity, and plant growth and new hypotheses and findings were discussed at the symposium.

On Monday, November 18th, the symposium kicked off with an engaging session focusing on "Protein Structure and Evolution" with invited speakers and an oral presentation from the PhD student Jens Mühlenbeck, who co-organised the conference together with the post-doctoral researcher Jürgen Eirich from the group of Iris Finkemeier in Münster.

Later that day, a poster session allowed almost 20 young researchers to showcase their work, sparking lively peer-to-peer discussions. Among the poster topics were studies exploring novel approaches to investigate chloroplast functions under varying conditions, highlighting molecular determinants influencing protein half-life, examining how plants adapt to excessive sugar levels, and developing tools for analysing proton motive forces.

Throughout Tuesday, November 19th, four thematically matching sessions explored different facets of environmental acclimation and photosynthesis. Young and invited speakers aside tackled subjects ranging from cyclic electron flow, to various other aspects of photosynthesis, and characterizing chloroplast PTMs. Other notable contributions explored the functional architecture of photosystems.

On Wednesday morning, protein import, (mis)translation, and quality control concluded the presentations.

Attendees praised the inclusive atmosphere fostered by this particular conference format, allowing ECRs and established investigators to contribute not only posters but also talks to the program. “It was a great opportunity to present my research in front of such a dedicated audience” said Tim Demmig (PhD student at Ruhr University Bochum), after his talk on photosynthetic acclimation mediated by chloroplast localized kinases.

The oral presentation on STIC2 and its selective binding to ribosome-nascent chain complexes in the co-translational sorting of Arabidopsis thylakoid proteins by Lena Osterhoff (PhD student at Ruhr University Bochum) was selected as best short talk, while Yu Ogawa (Post Doc at University of Münster) won the prize for the best poster, entitled “A dynamin-like protein FZL shapes thylakoid membranes and maintains their integrity against enhanced proton motive force”.