One hundred important questions facing plant science research

Plant biology is more important today than ever. Significant advances are required if we are to meet the escalating pressure for food, fuel, fibre and other plant products, and address the problems generated by climate change in a sustainable way, against a backdrop of an ever increasing and more prosperous human population. Scientific research has begun to focus its efforts towards these grand challenges, but it is not clear that the full range of challenges facing plant science is known or has been prioritised. What questions should the next generation of plant biologists address? Here we suggest, with brief explanations, our list of the most important questions facing plant science research today. We aim to stimulate discussion, encouraging plant scientists to think beyond the limits of their own specific sub-fields about the most important research that can conceivably be done, the most promising approaches that might successfully be applied, and the most significant discoveries that can possibly be made