Luit J. De Kok - Plant Sulfur Network

Upcoming Events:

13th International Plant Sulfur Workshop, September 21-25, 2025, COS, Heidelberg, Germany
51st CIEC International Fertilizer Conference, October 20-23, 2025, Tunis, Tunisia

Aims of the Plant Sulfur Network:

The aim the Plant Sulfur Network was to broaden, to integrate and to strengthening research on 'Managing Sulfur Metabolism in Plants', 'Sustainable Development', 'Global Change and Ecosystems' and 'Food Quality and Safety'. This was implemented by regular scientific meetings covering different the actual relevant topics of plant sulfur research including workshops focused on post genomic technologies and plant sulfur nutrition, engineering quality, cross-talk of metabolic pathways interacting with sulfur, managing sulfur nutrition, diagnosing sulfur deficiency, sulfur in plants and stress responses, push-pull regulation of sulfur assimilation pathways, (global) regulators of sulfur metabolism, interaction between sulfur and nitrogen metabolism.

Sulfur is an important nutrient for plant growth and health. Optimizing its assimilation into the many compounds involved in specific aspects of metabolism as well as coordinating its incorporation into amino acids and proteins by balancing availability and sink demands requires a complex network of interacting aspects of plant metabolism. Furthermore sulfur pools are managed, mobilized and distributed through development to optimize fecundity. Understanding the underlying mechanisms at the gene, cellular and whole plant level may enable us to produce crops with improved quality and resistance to stress. As a paradigm for nutritional management, ideas concerning sulfur fertilizers and their efficient use may be helpful for optimizing fertilizer use efficiency in general.

The Plant Sulfur Network was the follow-up of the COST Action 829 on “Fundamental, Agronomical and Environmental Aspects of Sulfur Nutrition and Assimilation in Plants”, which was initiated to coordinate European research on plant sulfur metabolism order to strengthen European research on agrobiology and active during the period 1997 - 2003. This Action was initiated and coordinated by Luit J. De Kok (chairman) and Ineke Stulen, University of Groningen, The Netherlands, Christian Brunold, University of Bern, Switzerland, Dieter Grill, University of Graz, Austria, Malcolm J. Hawkesford, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, U.K. and Ewald Schnug, JKI, Braunschweig, Germany. In COST Action 829, the knowledge on the molecular/biochemical, physiological, agronomical and environmental aspects of sulfur uptake and utilization by plants has been integrated. The Action has resulted in a close cooperation between more than 50 European research groups, providing expertise from different disciplines in plant research. Research topics in this multidisciplinary research project were to evaluate: i) The regulatory aspects of sulfur uptake and assimilation in plants in relation to the metabolic need for growth. ii)The interaction of pedospheric and atmospheric sulfur nutrition in plants. iii) The route and efficiency of uptake and metabolism of various forms of sulfur-containing fertilizers by plants. iv) Plant sulfur metabolism and food quality. v) The relation between plant sulfur status and its resistance to environmental stress and pests. A short description of the research topics of the participating groups has been published in a special journal issue: De Kok, L.J., Brunold C., Grill, D., Hawkesford, M.J., Schnug, E. and Stulen, I. 2000. Plant Sulfur Research in Europe: COST Action 829; Fundamental, Agronomical and Environmental Aspects of Sulfur Nutrition and Assimilation in Plants. Landbauforschung Völkenrode: Sonderheft 218, FAL, Braunschweig, ISBN 3-933140-40-4 (see below) and https://web.archive.org/web/20030216120230/http://cost829.dhs.org/.

Plant Sulfur Workshops and Related Symposia:

International Plant Sulfur Workshops:

1st Workshop on Sulfur Nutrition and Assimilation in Higher Plants; Fundamental, Environmental and Agricultural Aspects, Haren, The Netherlands, March 28-31, 1989.
2nd International Workshop on Sulfur Nutrition and Assimilation in Higher Plants; Physiological Functions and Environmental Significance, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, April 21-25, 1992.
3rd International Workshop on Sulfur Nutrition and Assimilation in Higher Plants, Newcastle, UK, April, 9-13, 1996.
4th International Workshop on Sulfur Nutrition and Sulfur Assimilation in Higher Plants: Molecular, Biochemical and Physiological Aspects, Wengen, Switzerland, April 6-10, 1999.
5th International Workshop on Sulfur Nutrition and Assimilation in Higher Plants; Regulation, Interaction, Signaling, Montpellier, France, April 11-14, 2002.
6th International Workshop on Plant Sulfur Metabolism: Sulfur Transport and Assimilation in the Post Genomic Era, Kazusa Akademia Center, Kisarazu, Chiba, Japan, May 17-21, 2005.
7th International Workshop on Sulfur Metabolism in Higher Plants: Regulatory Aspects, Significance of Sulfur in the Food Chain, Agriculture and Environment, Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw, Poland, May 13-18, 2008.
8th International Workshop on Sulfur Metabolism in Plants: Mechanisms and Application to Food Security and Responses to Climate Change, University of Melbourne, Creswick, November 22-27, 2010.
9th Plant Sulfur Workshop: Sulfur Metabolism in Plants - Molecular Physiology and Ecophysiology of Sulfur, Schloss Reinach. Freiburg, Germany, April 14-17, 2014.
10th Jubilee Plant Sulfur Workshop: Plant Sulfur Metabolism in Higher Plants - Fundamental, Environmental and Agricultural Aspects, Hotel De Achtermann, Goslar, Germany, September 1-4, 2015

Sulphyton Workshops:

1st Sulphyton Workshop, Kongresshotel Potsdam, Germany, September 23-25, 2007.
2nd Sulphyton Workshop, University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K., September 13-15, 2009.
3rd Sulphyton Workshop, University of Padova - Campus of Conegliano, Italy, September 29 - October 1, 2011.
4th Sulphyton Workshop, Hotel Stanley, Athens, Greece, September 5-8, 2013.
5th Sulphyton Workshop: Sulfur Nutrition and Metabolism in Plants, University of Taipei Campus, September 14-17, 2016.

Related Symposia:

Final COST Action 829 Meeting, Braunschweig, Germany, May 15-18, 2003.
Sino-German Sulfur Workshop on Aspects of Sulfur Nutrition of Plants, Shenyang, China, May 24-29, 2004.
7th International Symposium on Inorganic Nitrogen Assimilation in Plants: From the Genome to the Agro-Ecosystem, Wageningen, The Netherlands, June 23-27, 2004.
"Cross-talk between Metabolic Pathways involving Sulfur in Plants", FAL Braunschweig, Germany, October 21-22, 2005
25th International Symposium of the International Scientific Centre for Fertilizers (CIEC): Significance of Sulfur in High-Input Cropping Systems, Hampshire Hotel - Plaza Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, September 5-8, 2017.
17th World Fertilizer Congress of CIEC: "Go East! Fertilizers Future!", Shenyang, China, September 3-7, 2018.
26th International Symposium of the International Scientific Centre for Fertilizer (CIEC): Impact of Anticipating Research in the Past on Research in the Future, JKI Braunschweig, Germany, September 5-7, 2019

28th International Symposium of the International Scientific Centre for Fertilizers (CIEC): Fertilization and Nutrient Use Efficiency in Mediterranean Environments", Hotel Titania (video conference), Athens, Greece, November 3-4, 2020.

Plant Sulfur Network Members:

Sara Amâncio, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Lisbon, Portugal (samport@isa.utl.pt)
Dimitris L. Bouranis, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece (bouranis@aua.gr)
Luit J. De Kok, University of Groningen, The Netherlands (l.j.de.kok@rug.nl)
Silvia Haneklaus, Julius Kühn-Institut, Braunschweig, Germany (s.haneklaus@web.de)
Malcolm J. Hawkesford, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, U.K. (malcolm.hawkesford@rothamsted.ac.uk)
Rainer Höfgen, Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie, Golm, Germany (hoefgen@mpimp-golm.mpg.de)
Stanislav Kopriva, University of Cologne, Germany (skopriva@uni-koeln.de)
Mario Malagoli, University of Padova, Italy (mario.malagoli@unipd.it)
Heinz Rennenberg, University of Freiburg, Germany (heinz.rennenberg@ctp.uni-freiburg.de)
Kazuki Saito, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Yokohama, Japan (kazuki.saito@riken.jp)
Ineke Stulen, University of Groningen, The Netherlands (stuleng@gmail.com)
Ewald Schnug, Julius Kühn-Institut, Braunschweig, Germany (01732367829@vodafone.de)
Agnieszka Sirko, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics PAS, Warsaw, Poland (asirko@ibb.waw.pl)