Shaped by the environment - adaptation in plants

As sessile organisms that are unable to escape from inhospitable environments, plants are at the mercy of the elements. Nonetheless, plants have managed to adapt, evolve and survive in some of the harshest conditions on earth. The FEBS Workshop 'Adaptation Potential in Plants', held at the Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Vienna, Austria from 19 to 21 March 2009, provided a forum (including 18 invited talks, 8 selected short talks and 69 posters) for about 100 plant biologists from 32 countries, working in the diverse fields of genetics, epigenetics, stress signalling, and growth and development, to come together and discuss adaptation potential in plants at all its levels.