On May 4–6, 2026, Yaqoob Sultan, a doctoral student at the Department of Grass Breeding of the Institute of Agriculture, LAMMC participated in the international conference “Cultivating Connections: Interdisciplinary Insights from RECROP, DIVERSICROP and PANGEOS”, held in Prague, Czech Republic. Organised under the framework of three major European research initiatives, the event brought together researchers, scientists, and industry experts to foster interdisciplinary exchange on climate-resilient crop research, high-throughput phenotyping, and sustainable agriculture – topics of direct relevance given the growing threat that drought stress and climate variability pose to global food security.
Yaqoob Sultan presented a poster entitled “Physiological, transcriptional, and flavonoid metabolic responses to progressive drought stress in Lotus corniculatus cultivars”, which analysed how different cultivars of this legume species adapt to progressive drought through changes in secondary metabolite accumulation and the differential expression of the chalcone synthase gene family – mechanisms central to stress tolerance. Beyond his own presentation, the PhD student actively engaged in scientific sessions, keynote lectures, flash talks, and poster discussions, gaining valuable insights into experimental design, molecular analysis, and the interpretation of secondary metabolite responses under abiotic stress conditions.
The conference proved a highly productive opportunity for knowledge exchange and strengthened connections with the wider international research community working towards resilient, stress-tolerant plant varieties.
