Staff and postgraduate students from the Institute for Plant Biotechnology (IPB) attended the mid-year Plant Biology Europe EPSO/FESPB 2016 Congress in Prague, Czech Republic. This congress aims to advance research, education and the exchange of information among plant biologists with the ultimate focus on improving the impact and visibility of plant science in Europe and beyond. It brought together almost a thousand participants from across the world. It was organised by both the European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) and the Federation of European Societies of Plant Biology (FESPB), which consist of the largest number of independent academic organisations representing plant-based entities and plant scientists in Europe.

At the IPB, as part of attempts to introduce our postgraduate students to cutting-edge plant-based research, we expose our PhD students to international audiences where they can communicate and discuss their scientific findings. The Plant Biology Europe Congress 2016 was such an occasion. Dr James Lloyd and two of his PhD students, Ms Anke Wiese and Ms Zanele Mdodana, presented their research in one oral and two poster presentations respectively. Anke's oral presentation was titled: "The chemical nature of parasitic and mycoheterotrophic metabolism involves the reconfiguration of substrate usage in order to sustain the tricarboxylic acid cycle", Zanele's poster was titled: "Disruption of GWD1 orthologs in Physcomitrella patens alters colony morphology and decreases growth" and Dr Lloyd's poster was titled: "Increasing starch-bound phosphate through manipulating sex genes in potato tubers". Dr Lloyd is known worldwide for his carbon metabolism research with special emphasis on starch metabolism in plants and these congress contributions covered some of the work done under his guidance.