Unheard voices speak up: the Arabidopsis community and the representation of researchers from the Global South

Abstract

In June 2023, the Arabidopsis community met in Makuhari, Chiba, Japan, for the 33rd International Conference in Arabidopsis Research (ICAR). The meeting, which gathered more than 1200 researchers, spanned over the course of five days showcasing three keynote lectures, six plenary sessions, eleven workshops and thirty three concurrent sessions, in addition to two poster sessions.One of the concurrent sessions, titled “Arabidopsis and its translational research in the Global South”, chaired by José M. Estevez (Fundación Instituto Leloir - CONICET, Argentina, and Centro de Biotecnologia Vegetal, Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile) and Gabriela Auge (IABIMO, INTA-CONICET, Argentina) had the purpose of highlighting the work of researchers from the Global South, oftentimes under-represented in international conferences. Arabidopsis research globally has provided invaluable tools to understand the plant world at different biological scales, from ecology and evolutionary biology, to molecular biology. For many researchers, Arabidopsis is also a means to translate their work to other species of regional relevance, increasing the impact of this study model. A sizable proportion of that research is carried out by researchers in the Global South (i.e. countries located around the tropics and the Southern Hemisphere), even though these countries face many political and budget limitations for scientific pursuits. The invited and selected speakers represented a diverse group of scientists at different stages of their careers. They presented their work on plant adaptation to environmental cues using Arabidopsis as a tool, as well as diverse approaches to understanding physiological responses, and their underlying molecular mechanisms, to changing climates: drought, temperature, salinity, and plant nutrition.