Volume 10 Issue 11, November 2024

The development of high-yielding, resilient cultivars is the primary goal of many crop breeding programmes, but the uptake of these new cultivars is persistently low in low-income countries. We discuss constraints related to the adoption of crop cultivars and stress the importance of participatory approaches in building trust and promoting the adoption of new technologies.

The insertion of the stress-responsive transposable element (TE) ONSEN into a critical flowering regulator gene confers an adaptive response to herbicide treatment in Arabidopsis thaliana natural accessions.

Despite theoretical expectations of balanced 1:1 sex ratios between females and males, many dioecious plant species exhibit sex ratio distortions. A recent study in persimmon shows how this can be caused by random inactivation of an X-chromosomal gene that is essential for seed development.

The haplotype-resolved, chromosome-level genome assembly of tetraploid modern rose (Rosa hybrida), along with resequenced genomes of 233 diverse Rosa accessions, enabled the discovery of genetic contributions to the modern rose genome from its ancestral species. These insights into the origin and breeding history of roses open up new avenues for future breeding efforts.

Our extensive, multi-year regional study reveals that prolonged exposure to heavy wildfire smoke results in significant and persistent reductions in non-structural carbohydrates in trees, and that these effects continue for months following the fires (including into the dormancy period and next season’s bloom). Furthermore, trees that are subjected to high levels of smoke exhibit substantial yield reductions in the following year.

By studying the structure and function of a protein from the green alga Chlorella that drives phase separation of Rubisco, we revealed the protein’s ability to interact with Rubiscos from plants. This overcomes a major challenge in adding pyrenoids, which are carbon-fixing superchargers, to crops.

Synthesis of decades of field, herbarium and taxonomic studies show the presumed extinct species of Ecuador’s iconic Centinela ridge have survived, revealing the complexity of tropical cloud forests and offering new optimism for their conservation.

The incidence and severity of megafires are increasing as a consequence of global change. While the impacts of fires on tree physiology and ecosystem functioning are well studied, how smoke affects these processes is less clear. Here Orozco et al. report that wildfire smoke significantly reduces tree carbohydrate reserves and yields, revealing an overlooked consequence of wildfires.

The sex ratio is often not even in plants, and its molecular mechanisms have been little known. The study found that an X chromosome-encoded gene, named HaMSter in persimmon, influences sex ratio distortion via seed viability through a regulatory mechanism involving random DNA methylation.

Uracil DNA glycosylase-fused TALE-linked deaminases achieve precision A-to-G base editing without bystander C-to-T editing in chloroplast DNA to create herbicide-resistant plants with a heritable homoplasmic mutation in the psbA gene.

The haplotype-resolved genome of tetraploid modern rose, along with a variation map of 233 wild and cultivated Rosa accessions, reveals the complex genome composition of modern roses and elucidates the genomic bases of their origin and breeding.

This study reports the discovery of a retrotransposon insertion in the FLC gene conferring an environmentally dependent control mechanism mediated by DNA methylation that drives the adaptation of natural Arabidopsis populations to herbicide exposure.

This study reports that the nucleocytoplasmic shuttling of pyruvate kinase 6 (PK6), PK7 and PK8 mediates phosphorylation of H3 at threonine 11, represses flowering time, and promotes hypocotyl and pedicel elongation in Arabidopsis.

UV exposure modulates H3K9me2 contents at chromocentres via the histone demethylase JMJ27 which interacts with the DNA damage recognition factor, DDB2, and facilitates photodamage repair. The loading or release of DDB2 at nucleosome sites is optimized by the fine-tuning of H3K9me2.

The bacterial pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum secretes endonuclease RuvC, which degrades mature biofilm by targeting the lattice formed by cruciform extracellular DNA. This helps bacterial dispersal, pathogen spread in plant xylem and virulence.

This study identifies a kinesin motor at kinetochores that teams up with a key mitotic checkpoint protein to orchestrate proper chromosome movement during plant cell division, revealing a plant-specific mechanism for maintaining genetic integrity.

The stem cells in the Arabidopsis root meristem are maintained by the expression of the transcription factor WOX5 in the stem cell organizer. This study reveals that WOX5 functions in a coherent feed-forward loop, regulating auxin signalling.

Secreted plant subtilase SBT5.2 inactivates immunogenic csp22 epitopes in cold-shock proteins of Pseudomonas syringae, suggesting that pathogens exploit plant proteases to evade detection.

This research identifies a regulatory role for the receptor-like kinase FERONIA in Arabidopsis roots, finding that it balances growth and immunity by activating localized immunity in response to bacterial colonization.

There is a continuous arms race between pathogens and their host plants. Li et al. reveal that PR1 prevents entry of a fungal effector into plant cells from the apoplast that otherwise would quench host defence oxidizing agents via phase separation.

The core structure of rape sporopollenin consists of polymeric phenylpropanoid derivatives crosslinked by hydroxyl fatty acids, while other components ligated to free hydroxyl and carboxyl groups of the core structure to form the peripheral structure.

Barrett et al. identify a key Rubisco phase-separating protein in the CO₂-fixing pyrenoid of Chlorella algae. This protein’s broad promiscuity for green lineage Rubiscos may aid in engineering CO₂-supercharging pyrenoids in plants to boost yields.

Cryo-EM structures of cytb₆f with quinone bound in the Q_n site allow the identification of specific proton channels and reveal differences to known inhibitors. Nearby water channels imply a ‘piston-like’ mechanism during catalytic turnover.

Astragaloside IV, the key active compound in Radix Astragali, a medicinal plant used for immunomodulation in Asia and Europe, now has a fully elucidated biosynthetic pathway, enabling its efficient production through synthetic biology.