C-SPIRIT News: June & July 2026

Friday, July 31st, 2026

Read About our 2026 All-Hands Meeting!

C-SPIRIT’s latest blogpost looks back at the 2026 All-Hands Meeting, held July 2 and 3 at the RIKEN Yokohama Campus in Japan and via Zoom. Seventy-four researchers, trainees, and staff representing five countries came together to strengthen connections across C-SPIRIT’s research and crop-specific pipelines.

This explores how crop teams and working groups identified the evidence, standards, and stakeholder input needed to guide their next decisions. It also highlights the poster session, commercialization planning, visiting scientist exchanges, and collaborations that will shape the Center’s work in the year ahead. Here’s a preview:

“The 2026 C-SPIRIT All-Hands Meeting in Yokohama left teams with a clearer test for the year ahead: turn pipeline diagrams and discussion notes into decisions that shape experiments. Crop teams will refine decision trees, standardize assays, narrow candidate lists and plan field demonstrations, while bringing stakeholder input and technology transfer guidance into the process earlier. The next phase will depend on how well those choices help researchers identify candidates with enough evidence to move forward.”

C-SPIRIT Lab Spotlight: The Kusano Lab

This month, C-SPIRIT’s Lab Spotlight series features the Kusano Lab at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. Led by Miyako Kusano, the lab contributes to C-SPIRIT’s Aim 1, focused on metabolite discovery, and Aim 3, focused on gene and pathway discovery. The feature explores how the lab’s expertise in plant metabolism supports research across the Center. Here’s a preview:

“Kusano says the lab has recently started tomato abiotic stress experiments using heat-sensitive and heat-resistant lines. At the University of Tsukuba, the team can conduct greenhouse and field experiments at the same time and location, allowing researchers to compare controlled and field conditions more directly.

‘I would like our contributions to help transform metabolomics data into actionable biological knowledge,’ Kusano says.

For the Kusano Lab, this means identifying compounds, metabolic pathways, and network signatures that help explain why some plants are more resilient than others. It also means supporting a more predictive understanding of plant metabolism, so researchers can better anticipate which compounds or pathways may improve plant performance.”

Institutional Feature: University of Guelph

This month in the C-SPIRIT Institutional Feature Series, we are spotlighting the University of Guelph, where C-SPIRIT Broader Impacts team members Ataharul Chowdhury, Associate Professor of Capacity Development and Extension, and Milad Zhoolideh, a PhD student in Rural Studies, contribute expertise across several areas of the center’s collaborative work.

University of Guelph researchers support efforts ranging from strengthening communication between researchers, farmers, and communities to advancing knowledge mobilization and agricultural advisory services. Their work also helps connect scientific advances with real-world needs across agri-food systems and contributes insight into rural livelihoods, stakeholder engagement, and climate-related information challenges.

Through their work in communication, knowledge mobilization, and stakeholder engagement, University of Guelph team members help connect C-SPIRIT discoveries with the people and communities they are intended to serve, strengthening the center’s collaborative network and supporting resilient and sustainable agricultural systems.

Institutional Feature: RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science

Additionally, we are spotlighting the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, where a large team of C-SPIRIT members contributes expertise across several areas of the center’s collaborative research program, including Aim 1: Metabolite Discovery, Aim 3: Gene and Pathway Discovery, and Aim 5: Lab and Field Testing.

RIKEN researchers support efforts ranging from the discovery of novel bioactive compounds from diverse plant and microbial sources to the identification of genes and biosynthetic pathways associated with metabolite production. Their work also advances the evaluation of promising compounds through laboratory assays and field-based testing, helping connect early-stage discovery with real-world application.

Through their work in metabolite discovery, gene and pathway research, and lab and field testing, RIKEN team members contribute valuable insight that strengthens collaboration across the C-SPIRIT research network and supports the development of resilient and sustainable agricultural systems.

Recent C-SPIRIT Publications

A huge congratulations to all of our C-SPIRIT members who have published articles over the past few months! Explore some of the fantastic research our team has been doing:

Cho, H., Choi, I., Horibata, S., Lacombe, B., Krouk, G., Shahzad, Z., Brandizzi, F., & Rouached, H. (2026). Coumarins link iron deficiency to TOR inhibition in plants. Current Biology, S0960982226007347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2026.06.023

Creach, M., Webster, B., Newton, L., Turkus, J., Schnable, J. C., Thompson, A., & VanBuren, R. (2026). Predicting complex phenotypes using multi-omics data in maize. The Plant Cell, 38(6), koag185. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koag185

Karmacharya, J., Shrestha, P., & Oh, T.-J. (2026). CotA Laccase-Catalyzed Catechol Oxidation for Functional Chitosan and Iron oxide Nanoparticles in Aqueous Systems. Journal of Polymers and the Environment, 34(7), 158. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-026-03874-8

Kotnik, F., Ueda, M., Ito, A., Ishida, J., Takahashi, S., Sakai, K., Takagi, H., Seidel, J., Abe, T., Eirich, J., Takahashi, S., Schwarzer, D., Seki, M., & Finkemeier, I. (2026). HDA19-mediated deacetylation of histone H3.3 at lysines 27 and 36 regulates plant sensitivity to salt stress. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 123(29), e2534315123. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2534315123

Lee, J.-Y., Kim, B., Han, S.-R., Lee, Y. M., Lee, S. G., Lee, J. H., & Oh, T.-J. (2026). Complete genome of Pseudomonas sp. PAMC25886, a polar-adapted biodegrader from alpine glacier cryoconite. Microbiology Resource Announcements, e00245-26. https://doi.org/10.1128/mra.00245-26

Moghe, G. D., Zimić-Sheen, A., Chen, D., Yadav, G., Cao, G., Tufan, H., Williams, J., Szymański, J., Kim, J., Busta, L., Mutwil, M., Verdú, M., Zimić, M., Provart, N. J., Makunga, N., Wilkins, O., Sun, Q., VanBuren, R., Marks, R. A., Rhee, S. Y., Jiang, Y., Xie, Y. (2026). Reimagining plant science training in the era of generative artificial intelligence: A global perspective. The Plant Cell, 38(6), koag140. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koag140

Paudel, P., Regmi, K. P., Kim, K.-H., Pardhe, B. D., & Oh, T.-J. (2026). Divergent roles of active-site and access-channel residues in controlling regioselectivity and catalytic efficiency in CYP154C10. Bioorganic Chemistry, 180, 110132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bioorg.2026.110132

Phi, K.-H., Park, M., Heo, E. J., Kwon, S., Pham, G. N., Kim, J., Seo, J. B., Koo, M. H., Lee, J. H., Lee, S., Suh, S.-S., & Youn, U. J. (2026). Polycyclic phenolic compounds from the Antarctic moss Polytrichum strictum and their potential in treating cancer and obesity. Fitoterapia, 193, 107363. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fitote.2026.107363

Robertson, S. M., Maqsood, O., Dang, C., Pasha, A., Stasolla, C., Provart, N. J., & Wilkins, O. (2026). Drought and salinity stress remodel Asian rice (Oryza sativa) leaf development through cell‐type‐specific regulatory programs. New Phytologist, nph.71378. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.71378

Suzuki, T., Takayama, M., & Ezura, H. (2026). Enhanced Endogenous GABA Biosynthesis Modifies Fruit Production and GABA Accumulation in a Medium‐Sized Tomato Cultivar Under Salt Stress. Plant-Environment Interactions, 7(4), e70187. https://doi.org/10.1002/pei3.70187

5th International Electronic Conference on Metabolomics — October 14-16, 2026

The 5th International Electronic Conference on Metabolomics will take place virtually October 14-16, 2026. Organized by the journal Metabolites, the conference will bring together researchers working across metabolomics technologies, data analysis, ecological and environmental metabolomics, and plant and animal metabolism and metabolic modeling.

This event may be especially relevant for C-SPIRIT members working on metabolite discovery, metabolite annotation, biological interpretation, data integration, and plant stress-response research.

Details:

• Dates: Wednesday, October 14 – Friday, October 16, 2026

• Location: Virtual

• Registration Deadline: October 8th, 2026

CANVAS 2026 — November 1-4, 2026

CANVAS 2026, hosted by the Alliance of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Science Societies, will take place November 1-4 in Portland, Oregon. The meeting brings together researchers, students, professionals, and industry partners across crop, agronomic, environmental, and soil sciences. The program includes technical presentations, hands-on workshops, networking events, award ceremonies, field tours, student programming, and an exposition focused on current innovations in agronomy, crops, and soils.

This event may be especially relevant for C-SPIRIT members working on crop validation, field testing, sustainable agriculture, plant resilience, and the movement of research discoveries toward practical agricultural applications. Additionally, we are planning to host a booth, so be sure to stop by if you are attending!

Details:

• Dates: Sunday, November 1 – Wednesday, November 4, 2026
• Location: Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon, USA
• Early Registration Deadline: September 23rd, 2026
• Standard Registration Deadline: October 7th, 2026

Let us know about your upcoming talks!

Want to see your presentation/talk listed here? Feel free to email us at C-SPIRIT.Admin@msu.edu if you would like us to advertise your talk!

This work is funded by the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) grant OISE-2434687; the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) grant ALLRP 597259-24; the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) grant 2007-2024-1003; the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), grant RS-2024-00441423; the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) ASPIRE program, grant JPMJAP24A3; and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) grant BB/Z517082/1.