From October 16th to 18th, the 2026 International Academic Symposium on Plant Adaption Mechanisms to Environmental Stresses (PAMES 2026) was successfully held at NEFU. The event was jointly hosted by the Botanical Society of China and the Key Laboratory of Saline-alkali Vegetation Ecology Restoration (Northeast Forestry University), Ministry of Education, and organized by the College of Life Sciences. With the theme “Dialogue with Stress, Reviving Vitality,”nearly 1,000 teachers and students in the field participated online. The opening ceremony was chaired by Professor Li Yuhua, Director of the Key Laboratory of Saline-alkali Vegetation Ecology Restoration, Ministry of Education, and a professor at the College of Life Sciences. Yu Haipeng, Member of the Standing Committee of the NEFU Party Committee and Vice President, attended the opening ceremony.

Gong Zhizhong, Chairman of the Organizing Committee and a professor at China Agricultural University, expressed the Organizing Committee's gratitude to NEFU for hosting the conference for four consecutive sessions. He welcomed the participating experts and peers and expressed the hope to deepen cooperation and promote academic progress.

Yu Haipeng thanked the Botanical Society of China for its trust and said that NEFU will deepen domestic and international exchanges and cooperation and enhance the research level and international influence in the field of plant stress biology.

Dae-Jin Yun, Academician of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, and three Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences—Cao Xiaofeng, He Zuhua, and Qu Lijia—were among 22 experts who participated online. More than 10 of these experts have recently published findings in Nature, Science, and Cell, collectively showcasing the latest advances in plant stress biology and design breeding.

The academic presentations covered low temperature, drought, saline-alkali stress, light signaling, immune interactions, nutrient utilization, and breeding, presenting a full-chain research paradigm of “stress perception—signal dissection—epigenetic/metabolic regulation—field validation—breeding application”and involving in-depth discussions on future trends and frontier scientific questions.

A “Young Scholars Forum”was also held, where nine young faculty members and graduate students presented their latest advances.

In his concluding remarks, Gong Zhizhong noted that the field has developed from single-gene research toward a full chain of“perception—regulation—breeding,”and that new technologies are gradually becoming routine. The conference outcomes will promote international cooperation and regional ecological and economic development.

The conference showcased frontier advances and built a high-level exchange platform. It will help promote the selection and breeding of elite stress-resistant germplasm and the ecological utilization of saline-alkali land, providing new ideas for the green development of agriculture and animal husbandry.