Plants - as integrated systems - must adapt to an ever-changing environment. The 2016 Gordon Conference on Plant Molecular Biology will present cutting-edge research on how plants sense, process, integrate and store information related to environmental challenges. We will place particular emphasis on how genomic and systems biology approaches have uncovered the mechanistic basis for these responses. The conference will feature a wide range of topics in plant biology including "sensing" of abiotic factors, hormones, pathogens and symbionts, for example. These studies will reveal how plants process and integrate this information, as well as "store" it - for example via epigenetic mechanisms. In addition to the model Arabidopsis, the meeting will highlight the development of new and emerging crop models. Translation from model and non-model species to crops in the field will enable us to address the current challenges related to the environment, food security, non-renewable energy sources, water availability and overall sustainability. Invited speakers represent a variety of scientific disciplines, including plant genomics, systems biology, chemical genetics, biochemistry, structural biology and cell biology. The Conference will bring together a collection of investigators who are at the forefront of plant biology, and will provide opportunities for junior scientists and graduate students to present their work in poster format and exchange ideas with leaders in the field.