At the beginning of May 2026, Anastasija Juskovic from the Austrian Institute of Technology attended the first SeedCon conference in Potsdam, Germany – an inspiring event bringing together researchers working on seed microbiomes and microbial inheritance in plant systems.
Anastasija contributed with a poster presentation on “Influence of agro-management on soybean seed and plant microbiomes, and early plant development” and led the World Café discussion session “Best Practices to Derive Biological Meaning from Seed Microbiomes”. The discussion focused on methodological challenges in seed microbiome research, including low microbial biomass, host DNA contamination, and sequencing strategies. The interactive format enabled valuable exchanges on how to improve robustness, comparability, and biological interpretation of seed microbiome datasets.
Many thanks to the organisers and participants for creating such an engaging and collaborative atmosphere. We are looking forward to the next edition of SeedCon!
