Post by Carlos Trujillo-Moya

New Publication in Plant Phenomics! Norway spruce (Picea abies) is crucial for Europe’s forests and economy, yet frequent drought spells threaten its survival and productivity. In our newly released study in Plant Phenomics, we introduce an advanced high-throughput phenotyping approach—integrating transcriptomic, metabolomic, and anatomical insights—to reveal how spruce seedlings adapt to water scarcity. This framework not only streamlines the selection of drought-tolerant provenances but also highlights how cutting-edge, non-destructive techniques can transform tree breeding and forest management in the near future. Bundesforschungszentrum für Wald (BFW) Read More: https://lnkd.in/dHgQQp5P Collaborators from multiple institutions worked together to make this possible (Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas, IBMCP (UPV - CSIC);Universität Innsbruck;University of Vienna) A special mention goes to Muhammad Ahmad, whose scientific excellence, meticulous work, and data analyses were central to our findings. I’m proud to have led this effort, which required the combined expertise of forestry, molecular biology, and advanced imaging. Huge thanks to the Plant Science Core Facility team (Jakub Jeż) at the Vienna BioCenter Core Facilities (VBCF) for letting us go full “mad scientist” with #PHENOPlant and for letting us be the first to publish research with it. Stay tuned. We are hardly working on a new manuscript in which we screened 66 provenances from across Europe—likely the largest drought-stress screening ever conducted on Norway spruce in a high-throughput plant phenotyping platform. This will be key to understand adaptive variation to drought in this key stone tree species. This reseach was funded by: Bundesministerium für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Regionen und Wasserwirtschaft FFG Austrian Research Promotion Agency Austrian Science Fund FWF #Forestry #ClimateAdaptation #HighThroughputPhenotyping #TreeBreeding #SustainableForestry #PlantScience #Plantmol #DroughtStress #NorwaySpruce #PlantPhenomics #ForestResearch #Transcriptomics #Metabolomics #EcoInnovation #ClimateResilience #FutureOfForestry

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