From April 16 to 19, the First International Symposium on “Plant Single Cell Biology” was jointly held by Interdisciplinary Sciences Research Institute, National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, College of Plant Science & Technology, and College of Life Science & Technology of HZAU, where more than 30 researchers, business and publishing representatives from the US, Germany and China conducted in-depth exchanges about the frontiers and future challenges of single cell research. Presided by Prof. Yan Jianbin (Vice President of HZAU), this symposium has gone on simultaneously with its online counterpart.

This symposium was divided into two parts: presentations given by invited scholars and a roundtable discussion. April 16 has seen its opening ceremony in which 19 attendees made their extraordinary reports, covering diverse research topics in the following aspects: research techniques for single-cell plants, single-cell data analysis methods, single-cell transcriptomics, epigenomics, 3D genomics, sperm-egg and zygotic cell development, and meiotic recombination exchange studies, etc. After that they had in-depth and heated discussions with audiences online and offline. On behalf of HZAU, four professors, respectively Zhao Yu, Tu lili, Yang Ning and Cao Gang reported on their latest progress in single cell research.
On April 17, Prof. Sun Mengxiang from Wuhan University was invited to preside over the

roundtable discussion. Conferees exchanged their ideas on a variety of aspects: from technical challenges of plant single-cell biology to opportunities created by single-cell biology for botanical research, from the establishment of a long-term communication mechanism for single-cell research to ways of developing it from nothing. Consequently, they drew a conclusion that the era of single-cell plants has come. As a significant event in plant single-cell biology, this symposium has provided a vital opportunity for researchers in this field to conduct further exchanges and cooperation.

According to Prof. Yang Fang from College of Plant Science & Technology, researches in plant single-cell biology are thriving, and changing the paradigm of plant science research by providing a new perspective for us to further understand the development of plants and their environmental response mechanisms. All scholars present spoke highly of this symposium and expected to hold it regularly so that an important platform for exchanges among single-cell research teams could be constructed.

Source: http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2021/0420/59950.shtml
Translated by: Shang Meng
Supervised by: Wang Xiaoyan