The XXI Eucarpia Meeting of the Tomato Working Group will take place from 10th to 13th of June 2025 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The event is hosted by the Maritsa Vegetable Crops Research Institute (MVCRI) in collaboration with Geosemselect Ltd. This event promises to be an enlightening and dynamic gathering, where experts and enthusiasts in the field of tomato genetics and breeding will come together to share knowledge, to discuss advancements, and to foster collaborations. Building upon the success of its predecessors, the XXI Meeting stands as a testament to the continued evolution and innovation within the field. The meeting will feature presentations, discussions and networking opportunities aimed at advancing our understanding of tomato genetics, breeding techniques, abiotic and biotic stress resistance, and sustainable production practices.
On March 27-28, an international online conference will be held on the topic “Sustainable utilization of bio-resources and waste of medicinal and aromatic plants for innovative bioactive products” organized by the Center of Competence “Sustainable utilization of bio-resources and waste from medicinal and aromatic plants for innovative bioactive products”. The Conference is an international, interdisciplinary platform focused on the effective use of the resources of medicinal and aromatic plants and the utilization of agro-bio-waste, as well as the application of green technologies to generate and offer to the industry innovative technologies and products thus creating conditions for sustainable growth of the bioeconomy. It aims to cover the wide spectrum of application of medicinal and aromatic plants with special emphasis on the sustainable use of bioresources for development of innovative products with high added value.
The conference includes the following sessions:
• Characterization of the genetic and metabolite diversity of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP) for their cultivation and further utilization
• MAP by-products – extraction, composition and biological activities
• Obtaining and chemical characterization of biologically active natural and synthetic compounds
• Biological activity of natural and synthetic compounds.
• Formulation, characterization and quality control of MAP-based products
• Polymer nutraceutical and cosmetic formulations from MAP
We have invited leading scientists from the academia and industry, and hope that you will join us and share you most recent research results.
Dear friends,
We are pleased to invite you to the “2022 European Researchers’ Night”, which is organized within the SEARCH project funded by the Horizon 2020 EU program activities Marie Sklodovska Curie. We will celebrate this event at the AgroBioInstitute and the Joint Genomic Center – Biology Faculty, Sofia University, 8 Dragan Tsankov blvd. from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, September 30. For all those who are interested and will visit the event, we have prepared presentations, demonstration materials, as well as a questionnaire related to plants. Everyone who answers the questions correctly will receive a gift. For those of you who prefer to stay in front of the computers, we have prepared presentations and video materials on our YouTube channel.
We are waiting for you on September 30th!
Тwo laboratories, leaders in different scientific fields – Prof. Dr Roumiana Tsenkova (Kobe University, Japan) performing in-vivo non-destructive near infrared (NIR) spectral monitoring of living systems and Prof. Dr Dimitar Djilianov (Agrobioinsitute, Sofia, Bulgaria) working on resurrection plants, especially H. rhodopensis joined their efforts to uncover the mechanisms of extreme desiccation tolerance in some plants.
Haberlea rhodopensis; Credit: D. Djilianov
Water is of crucial importance for the life on our planet – both as part of the environment and/or component of the living systems. During their evolution, the organisms have developed various mechanisms to cope with stress, resulting from water deficiency. This is particularly true for plant kingdom, since plants have to survive water stress “on the spot” being unable to leave the unfavorable conditions.
There is a small group of plants, known as “resurrection plants” that can survive long periods (months, years) with almost completely desiccated vegetative tissues and recover fast and fully when water is available again. Obviously, such plant species are very useful model systems. This is particularly true for the Balkan endemite Haberlea rhodopensis which, despite the favorable conditions in most of its habitats in Bulgaria and Greece, keeps in its ‘genome, resurrection behavior coming back from more than 40 million years ago!
Enormous progress has been done recently at various levels to elucidate the mechanisms of desiccation tolerance of resurrection plants. As a rule, however they are focused on the biological components of these bio-aqueous systems. Little or no attention was paid so far to the role of water, as a partner during desiccation and recovery after severe stress!
And here came AQUAPHOTOMICS!!!
Researchers developed an experimental design to compare the reaction of H. rhodopensis and a non-resurrection plant species, belonging to the same botanical family during desiccation and recovery and to apply NIR spectroscopy studies to study the water structures in leaves of both species. In a paper, published recently in Scientific Report, the scientists showed that:
Water in the living
organism is an aggregate (sum) of a defined number of different molecular
structures (water species);
All other components
and perturbations of the bio-aqueous system are “shaping up” the water matrix
which, as a collective mirror, reflects molecular and environmental changes;
Fine restructuring and
changes of the ratios of water molecular species allow the resurrection plant
to adapt to the changes imposed by desiccation;
All water molecular
structures (with different weight, hence different influence and role) are
directly related to the respective functionality of the whole biological
system;
Water spectral pattern
is an integrative marker of the biological system functionality;
At desiccation, the
resurrection plant water matrix is finely tuned by the biological components of
the system. This provides constant ration of the water species regardless of
the fast water content decrease. At full desiccation a sharp decrease of free
water molecules and increase of water dimers and water molecules with 4
hydrogen bonds occurs.
During the rehydration
of the resurrection plant, orderly incremental changes of mostly all water
species take place;
The non-resurrection
plant species, subjected to desiccation showed no changes in its water
structures during desiccation while still alive.
Dynamics of different water species during dehydration and rehydration of Haberlea rhodopensis (A) and non ressurection plant (B). Sr – protonated water clusters, S0 – free water molecules, S1 – water dimers, S2, S3 and S4 – water molecules with 2, 3 and 4 hydrogen bonds, respectively. Credit: Kuroki, S. et al. Sci. Rep. (2019)
This research can be regarded as a pioneering effort with a valuable addition to our growing understanding of the mechanisms by which some organisms achieve their remarkable tolerance to extreme dehydration.
Shinichiro
Kuroki et al. Water molecular structure underpins extreme desiccation tolerance
of the resurrection plant Haberlea rhodopensis, Scientific Reports (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-39443-4
Model describing the desiccation tolerance mechanisms in H. rhodopensis Liu et al. 2018 , BMC Plant Biology, CC BY 4.0
Water shortages are the main limiting factor for global agriculture and ecosystems in general. During the evolution, different plants have developed the ability to survive relatively short periods of weaker or more severe water shortages. The so-called resurrection plants are, however, the only ones capable of surviving complete dehydration of their vegetative organs for a long period of time.
The Balkan endemic species Haberlea rhodopensis is one of only a few resurrection plants found in Europe. Within a bilateral project funded by the Bulgarian Science Fund (NTSC / China / 01/7), scientists from the Abiotic Stress Group, headed by Professor Dimitar Djilianov from the AgroBioInstitute at the Agricultural Academy of Bulgaria and the Laboratory of Plant Resources, headed by Professor Xin Deng from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted a transcriptome analysis of Haberlea rhodopensis under dry and restoration conditions to study the dynamics of gene expression and its relationship to the available physiological and metabolic data.
The results show that during severe dehydration of the resurrection plant (~ 20% relative water content), a reprogramming of the transcriptome occurs, resulting in profound changes in metabolism towards alternative energy delivery pathways, signal transduction of plant hormones and prevention of damage to DNA and proteins. All this secures the physiological and metabolic reactions of the plant to stress and ultimately determines the ability of H. rhodopensis to “resurrect” after complete drying.
Let’s celebrate together the European Researchers’ Night at the AgroBioInstitute on September 28-th (Friday), 2018. The topic of the Night organized by ABI is “Scientific Heritage and Traditions. Science, Innovation and Future”. The event will be held at ABI, Sofia between 17:00 and midnight.
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