After having spent over 2 years mostly online due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Mechanism of Plant Development Conference 2022 renewed our ability to meet and engage in-person with fantastic scientists from across the field of plant development. The first session was opened by Scott R Poethig (University of Pennsylvania, USA). Poethig described his 40 years of work on the shoot maturation of plants. He described how the juvenile to adult phase transition (also known as the vegetative phase change) in Arabidopsis is regulated by the levels of small microRNAs such as MIR156/MIR157 and their target SQUAMOSA PROMOTER-BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) transcription factor. Moutasem Omary (The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel) described the molecular basis of shoot-borne roots in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) using CRISPR null mutants, single-cell transcriptomics, and phylogenetic analysis. Omary and colleagues found that the shoot-borne root initiation program is controlled by the subclass IIIB LATERAL ORGANS BOUNDARY DOMAIN (LBD), which is conserved within angiosperms (Omary et al., 2022). This research contributes to our understanding of the genetic regulation underlying different types of root systems. Moving from the underground to aboveground plant tissue, Angela Hay (Max Planck Institute, Cologne, Germany) talked about explosive seed dispersal in Cardamine hirsuta fruits. Hay explained how the asymmetric lignin deposition within endocarp cell walls of the fruit valves is required for seed dispersal. In addition, Hay and colleagues found that the three laccases (LACs), LAC4, LAC11, and LAC17, are required for the polar deposition of lignin. The LAC4/11/17 are dependent on SQUAMOSA PROMOTER-BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE 7 (SPL7), which is a transcription factor involved in copper homeostasis (P erez-Ant on et al., 2022). This research highlights the importance of particular cell wall components for the process of seed dispersal.During plant development, specification of cell types, biomechanical cell properties, and positional information are all essential for plant tissue morphogenesis (Fig. 1). Agata Burian (University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland) described her work on how leaf primordia acquire abaxial and adaxial specification to establish dorsiventrality. Burian and colleagues used time-lapse confocal imaging and molecular genetics to track both the expression patterns of ASYMMETRIC LEAVES and KANADI as well as the role of auxin during leaf specification. These findings suggest that auxin switches its role from coordinating the position to initiating