Balancing Retrospection and Visions: The Cytogenetics Group of the Society of Plant Breeding (GPZ) Came Together in Dresden

the cytogenetics community needs both (1) an understanding of the unresolved research questions still pushing the field, and (2) good grasps on the strengths and limitations of the modern methods. We positioned the Cytogenetics group meeting at this intersection and wanted to have a small-scale meeting, during which interaction and conversation would be easy and rewarding. Therefore, we decided on the beautiful park setting on the outskirts of Dresden, left room for discussions and strolls through the gardens, as well as organized two joint meals and a guided city tour. The scope and also the venue of the GPZ Cytogenetics meeting has been chosen by Prof. Dr. Thomas Schmidt, former group leader of TU Dresden’s research group “Plant Cell and Molecular Biology,” and initiator of the meeting. In the light of his very recent, tragic, and absolutely unpredictable death, the meeting was dedicated to his memory. That we met the balance between retrospection and the future can – to no small part – be attributed to Pat Heslop-Harrison (University of Leicester, UK, and South China Botanical Garden, Guangzhou, China) and his thoughtful keynote. He initially submitted an abstract entitled “Genomes and Crops: Domestication and Now Superdomestication,” starting with: “It has never been a more exciting time to work on genome evolution, chromosomes, and crops [...]”. As former mentor and longFrom September 26th to 27th, 2019, the Cytogenetics group of the Society of Plant Breeding (GPZ) met in a relaxed atmosphere near Dresden (Germany). This year’s meeting focused on “Chromosome Biology, Genome Evolution, and Modern Cytogenetics in the Context of Plant Breeding” and was attended by 41 members from academia and industry ( Fig. 1 ).