CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
The Scientific Committee welcomes abstracts on the following topics:
Session 1 – From wild species to crops: de novo domestication and breeding of underutilized crop
This session explores the analysis of domestication traits and how plant genetics and genomics are driving progress in de novo domestication and the improvement of underutilized crops. Expected contributions will cover foundational genetic resources, including genomic and transcriptomic data, and the use of pangenomes to uncover structural variation linked to key traits.
The session welcomes insights into precision genome engineering for accelerated domestication of wild species, as well as multi-omics or AI-driven approaches for prioritizing quality and yield-related traits.
Session 2 – Regulation of plant development, architecture and in vitro regeneration
Genetic control of plant development and architecture is central to plant adaptation and breeding and provides new opportunities for the application of New Genomic Techniques (NGTs). This session welcomes contributions on genetic, molecular and hormonal mechanisms regulating plant development and architecture, as well as advances in in vitro culture and regeneration. Topics include developmental and architectural regulators, also in relation to response to environmental conditions, and improved regeneration systems supporting efficient genome editing and crop innovation.
Session 3 – Emerging strategies and future directions in plant breeding
Plant breeding is quickly advancing through the use of genomic tools, data science, and artificial intelligence. This session will focus on innovative strategies that accelerate variety development, enhance selection efficiency, and promote sustainable crop improvement. We welcome contributions that showcase AI-based methods, digital breeding techniques, and new applications aimed at enhancing crop performance, quality, and resilience in a changing agricultural landscape. The session will also cover traditional breeding approaches that integrate molecular techniques, speed breeding, and genomic selection.
Session 4 – Harnessing plant potential for food and health
This session highlights cutting-edge advances in plant genetics aimed at enhancing nutritional quality and health-promoting traits. Presentations will cover genomic tools, molecular breeding, and the identification of key genes and pathways underlying valuable plant-based product characteristics. Strategies for accelerating crop improvement to meet food and health challenges can be proposed for this session, fostering the dialogue among geneticists, breeders, and researchers working on plant-based systems for biomolecules.
Session 5 – Exploiting plant biodiversity to drive innovative plant breeding
This session highlights the development, analysis, conservation and exploitation of collections of plant genetic materials (including crop wild relatives, ecotypes, varieties, landraces, natural and induced mutants, and mapping populations) as a boundless reservoir of genetic diversity for crop improvement. We welcome contributions describing innovative approaches in high-throughput phenotyping and genotyping aimed at generating new insights into simple or complex traits to accelerate the improvement of the crops for the future.
Session 6 – Integrative genomics and regulatory networks for next-generation crop improvement
Understanding complex agronomic traits requires moving beyond single reference genomes toward integrative frameworks that capture multiple layers of genome regulation and variation. This session focuses on recent advances in the reconstruction and analysis of plant regulatory networks using next-generation sequencing data, combining transcriptomic, epigenomic and genome-wide information with bioinformatics and data-driven approaches. Particular emphasis will be placed on “beyond-the-reference” genomics, including pangenomes development and investigation, epigenomic diversity, and their integration with multi-omics and phenomics data. Contributions will explore how these approaches enhance the interpretation of gene regulation, metabolic pathways and genotype–phenotype relationships, providing new insights and tools for next-generation crop improvement.
Session 7 – Improving the utilization efficiency of key resources, water and macronutrients for crop productivity
Macronutrients (Nitrogen – N, Phosphorous – P) and water are decisive resources for plant growth and development. Their utilization efficiency is a key determinant of sustainable crop productivity under changing environmental conditions. This session invites contributions providing new insights into the identification of heritable traits enabling improved Water Use Efficiency (WUE), N and P Use Efficiency (NUE and PUE), as well as plant adaptation to low input conditions.
Session 8 – Miscellaneous (posters only)
This session will host all the contributions that cannot be included in the thematic sessions listed above. This will be a poster session.
RULES FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
- The deadline for abstract submission is June 20, 2026
- Each contribution, either oral or poster, will be linked to a single corresponding Author who must be registered to the Congress. The corresponding Author may or may not be the first Author. The corresponding Author can be a co-author of other contributions, but not with the qualification of corresponding Author.
- The corresponding Author must indicate:
(a) the identification number of the session to which the scientific contribution belongs
(b) the preferred form of presentation of the work to the Congress, oral or poster
- The Scientific Committee will evaluate the request and will inform the corresponding Author of the chosen presentation form by the end of July.
- Only the abstracts of accepted and presented contributions (oral or poster), will be published in the proceedings, which will be made available on the SIGA website under an ISBN identifier.
- Oral communications, the slides contents and posters must be in English. Poster format should be 70 cm wide x 100 cm high. Due to space limitations, there will be two poster sessions organized in two separate, consecutive groups. Therefore, the posters of each session will be displayed for a limited time as detailed in the provisional programme Authors will be asked to be present nearby their posters during the dedicated timings that will be reported in the final programme.
- The Scientific Committee reserves the right to make any changes to the program that may be necessary for scientific and/or organisational reasons.