Why virtual plants are key to developing climate-resilient crops
In an interview, CEPLAS postdoc Chilperic Armel Foko Kuate and CEPLAS doctoral researcher Jérémie Muller-Prokob discuss how digital plant models help us understand and engineer crops that can adapt to climate change. By representing key aspects of plants and simulating their responses to harsh environments, we identify traits that can be enhanced for greater resilience. This approach accelerates crop innovation, conserves resources, and contributes to tackling food insecurity.
Thanks to Dr. Diana Széliová, Computational Cell Biology (HHU), for moderating the interview.
Planter’s Punch
Under the heading Planter’s Punch we present each month one special aspect of the CEPLAS research programme. All contributions are prepared by our early career researchers.


About the authors
Chilperic Armel Foko Kuate is from Cameroon and currently a CEPLAS postdoctoral fellow at Computational Cell Biology (HHU). He's working on computational models of plant anatomy and physiology in relation to climate.
Jérémie Muller-Prokob is a CEPLAS doctoral researcher at Computational Cell Biology (HHU). He works on computational models of plants, studying plant physiology, biochemistry, evolution and anatomy.
Further Reading
Chilperic Armel Foko Kuate, Oliver Ebenhöh, Barbara M. Bakker, Adélaïde Raguin; Kinetic data for modeling the dynamics of the enzymes involved in animal fatty acid synthesis. Biosci Rep26 July 2023; 43 (7): BSR20222496. doi: 10.1042/BSR20222496
St. Elmo Wilken, Mathieu Besançon, Miroslav Kratochvíl, Chilperic Armel Foko Kuate, Christophe Trefois, Wei Gu, Oliver Ebenhöh; Interrogating the effect of enzyme kinetics on metabolism using differentiable constraint-based models. Metabolic Engineering, Volume 74,2022, Pages 72-82, doi: 10.1016/j.ymben.2022.09.002