Let plant hydraulics catch the wave

Abstract

In September 2015, INRA-Aquitaine organized the second international meeting of the Xylem group in Bordeaux.This group gathers scientists interested on structural, functional and ecological aspects of the xylem tissue in plants. The group first organized French meetings between 1999 and 20131 but turned international in 2014. For this second international event, more than 100 scientists from 17 different countries attended the meeting for 3-days. While the majority of the attendees were from the field of plant hydraulics, it is noteworthy that many participants were from different disciplines such as molecular biology, genomics, physiology, physics and ecosystem biology. This is an illustration of the dynamism and of the attractiveness of plant hydraulics. Our objective here is to stress some points that we think are important to consider in order to promote further this discipline in the future and let xylem hydraulics catch the wave.