Letters

Plant cell growth requires cell wall extension. Here, the nanoscale movement of cellulose microfibrils in onion primary cell wall is imaged by atomic force microscopy and compared under mechanical extension versus enzymatic loosening.

While circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been identified in all eukaryotic kingdoms of life, their functions have remained elusive. Now, a study shows that circRNAs can promote alternative splicing of their cognate mRNA, thus driving homeotic phenotypes.

Setaria viridis is a panicoid grass that can serve as a simpler genetic model for crops, such as maize, and accelerate gene discovery. Here, an auxin influx transporter is identified in both plants as an inflorescence architecture regulator.

GW5 is a major rice quantitative trait locus for grain size. Through genetics experiments, and unlike previous reports, the causal gene is now linked to a calmodulin-binding protein that affects brassinosteroid signalling.

A Japanese group has developed an approach of generating transgenic rice plants with agrochemical-controlled flowering time by overexpressing a floral repressor gene, Ghd7, followed by transformation of an agrochemical-inducible florigen gene, Hd3a.

A comprehensive gene stacking approach is used to rationally design rice varieties that combine multiple desirable quantitative traits to obtain both high yields and high grain quality.

In addition to the previously reported root-to-shoot nitrogen-deficiency small peptides, two more polypeptides are identified as phloem-mobile descending shoot-to-root signals and show a mechanism of systemic nitrogen-demand signalling.

Food production causes a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. This life-cycle assessment of the supply chain of a loaf of bread finds that over half of its environmental impacts arise from wheat cultivation, with 40% from the use of nitrate fertiliser.

Pesticide is a threat to the environment and human health. Whether reducing pesticide would necessarily undermine crop productivity remains elusive. Analyses of data from 946 farms in France show that reducing pesticide rarely decreases productivity.

Sown grassland mesocosms involving eight common plant species were provided different forms of phosphorus. Individual species used organic and inorganic phosphate differently, with their success relating to acquisition of a specific form of phosphorus.

High-quality draft genomes have been generated for the two commercially cultivated jute species, Corchorus olitorius and Corchorus capsularis. Transcriptome analyses revealed key regulatory and structural genes involved in fibre formation.

Polarity establishment during the first zygote asymmetrical division is explored in the brown algae Dictyota. Through transcriptomics and cytological observations, the authors uncover a novel polarization process based on two steps that are controlled by different cues.

Data from 2,201 interviews in 68 South American communities show that the use of palms (Arecaceae) is linked to function and geography. Plant size and location are stronger predictors of utilization for basic needs than less-basic ones, such as ritual uses.

Several lines of evidence indicate that under osmotic stress conditions, subclass I SnRK2 kinases phosphorylate VARICOSE, one of the components of the mRNA decapping complex, providing an additional molecular mechanism of adaptation to stress.

Small RNAs regulate plant–pathogen interactions. In rice, AGO18 sequesters microRNA528, which negatively regulates resistance to viruses through the silencing of L-ascorbate oxidase and thus controls the production of reactive oxygen species.

The phenotypic expression of SP11 alleles ­— male determinants of self-incompatibility in Brassica rapa ­— is controlled by a five-phased linear hierarchy. A study has found that a polymorphic 24-nt small RNA controls the linear hierarchy of four of the SP11 alleles.

To explore how climate warming may affect rice yield, a study used field experiments and three modelling approaches to examine the sensitivity of rice yield to warming. The study predicts that severe rice yield losses are likely to occur without effective crop improvement.

Pottery remains from archaeological sites in the Libyan Sahara provide the earliest direct evidence for plant processing in pottery, dating to 8200–6400 cal BC. The remains show processing of grasses and aquatic plants gathered from the then green Sahara.

Interrogation of a worldwide database of leaf traits in forest canopies shows that a large proportion of ‘full-sun’ readings were made in the shade. The majority of leaves exist in the shade but research is too focused on conditions in the sun.

Despite improved farming practices, models suggest that droughts like those of the 1930s would still be devastating to the US today. High temperatures are more damaging than rainfall deficit, leading to losses ∼50% larger than the severe drought of 2012.