The EMBO Workshop ‘Developmental metabolism: flows of energy, matter, and information‘ took place last September at EMBL Heidelberg and virtually.

Building on the success of its first edition in 2023, this workshop brought the community together once again to strengthen connections and foster progress in developmental metabolism. Over four days, researchers from diverse backgrounds, including developmental biology, genetics, epigenetics, ecology, physics, and mathematics, shared cutting-edge research and innovative methodologies. The programme highlighted advances across multiple scales, showcasing the latest developments in metabolomic technologies and their applications to developmental biology.

We welcomed 70 on-site and 30 virtual participants. Six fellowships were awarded through the EMBL Corporate Partnership Programme and EMBO. Participants voted for their four favourites among the 22 posters presented, and we’re pleased to share the abstracts of three of the winners below.

Regulation of plant stem cell activity and growth by energy signals

Presenter: Christopher Bell
Authors: Christopher Bell, Filipa Lara Lopes, Elena Baena-Gonzalez

Abstract:

The ability to regulate growth is pivotal to plant fitness and survival. Unlike in mammals, plant development occurs mostly postembryonically, enabling a remarkable developmental plasticity that is crucial for adaptation to an everchanging environment. The formation of all aboveground tissues and organs is controlled in the shoot apical meristem – the place where the plant’s pluripotent stem cells reside. Here, multiple signalling pathways converge to adjust growth to a diverse combination of developmental, metabolic, and environmental signals.

Central to this process is energy sensing and signalling via the SNRK1 kinase, the plant homolog of AMPK. However, little is known of how this information is integrated and translated into adequate growth decisions.

Our goal is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that transduce the information of the plant energy status into shoot apical meristem activity in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. To examine this complex network, we have used molecular tools, fluorescent reporters, phenotypical analyses, and in vitro biochemical approaches. We have provided evidence that the SnRK1 kinase influences meristem activity in planta and have identified meristem-specific transcription factors that are able to interact with and be phosphorylated by SnRK1 in vitro. Based on these observations, we propose that the SnRK1 kinase acts as a central regulator of meristem activity, adjusting it to the energy status through action on core meristematic transcription factors.

View poster

From nutrient sensing to morphogenesis: restricted metabolism in Nematostella tentacle development

Presenter: Jaroslav Ferenc
Authors: Jaroslav Ferenc, Elody Cerquido, Petrus Steenbergen, Theodore Alexandrov, Aissam Ikmi

Abstract:

Restricted metabolic programs are characteristic of several bilaterian organs, often presenting as distinct fuel preferences regardless of fuel availability (for example, glucose for the brain and fatty acids (FAs) for the heart muscle). Although these metabolic constraints impose additional costs during nutrient scarcity, their adaptive advantages remain unclear. Existing hypotheses primarily link such restrictions to organ-specific functions, but it is uncertain whether their evolutionary origins are interconnected.

To explore this question, we investigated the simple cnidarian Nematostella vectensis, which lacks bilaterian-like organs and can endure prolonged starvation. Combining spatial transcriptomics, metabolomics, and functional assays, we uncovered metabolically restricted compartments in Nematostella: longitudinal body muscles preferentially utilize glucose, while tentacles favor FAs as a fuel source. Notably, inhibiting FA oxidation specifically disrupts feeding-driven tentacle addition without affecting body growth, effectively decoupling these two feeding-dependent processes. We show that tentacle addition, unlike continuous body growth, operates as a threshold switch triggered by sustained nutritional surplus. FA preference in tentacles appears to enhance the reliability of this mechanism, ensuring sufficient resource surplus before initiating a costly developmental program.

Our findings suggest that restricted metabolic programs likely predate the evolution of complex bilaterian organs. The FA preference may have originally served to link nutritional status with developmental decisions, and could be a vestigial trait in bilaterian organs.

Due to the confidentiality of the unpublished data, we cannot share the poster

Dissecting the mechanism of metabolic flux control and energetic costs in cells

Presenter: Junjie Liu
Authors: Junjie Liu, Xingbo Yang

Abstract:

While extensive knowledge exists about the molecular details of metabolic pathways, the coupling of metabolic activities with subcellular processes remains largely unexplored. Our research aim is to reveal the energetic costs of these processes and the associated mechanism of metabolic flux partitioning in cells. Mitochondria produce energy to support the cellular processes through the electron transport chain (ETC), which maintains a proton gradient across its inner membrane to produce ATP. Mitochondrial activity can be characterized by the ETC flux and the protonmotive force, both of which can depend on mitochondrial membrane potential. Using mouse oocytes as a model system, we have observed that the ETC flux remains constant in response to energetic demand perturbations, e.g. the depolymerization of microtubules, despite significant changes in mitochondrial membrane potential. We term this phenomenon flux homeostasis. To understand the underlying mechanism, we combine biophysical modelling with experimental measurements of mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP levels to study the potential role of protonmotive force in flux partitioning. We will leverage this understanding to estimate the energetic costs of different cellular processes in mouse oocytes.

Due to the confidentiality of the unpublished data, we cannot share the poster

The EMBO Workshop ‘Developmental metabolism: flows of energy, matter, and information‘ took place from 9 – 12 September 2025 at EMBL Heidelberg Advanced Training Centre and virtually.