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The root-related changes in maize domestication, improvement and modern breeding were systematically investigated, and candidate genes related to maize root system architecture were identified for future genetic improvement.
Extant asterids comprise over 80,000 species of flowering plants. A fossil fruit from western North America shows that the lamiid clade of asterids diverged over 80 million years ago.
SnRK1 is a key metabolic sensor that controls plant development and stress responses. This study integrates phosphoproteomics, affinity purification coupled to mass spectrometry, proximity labelling and crosslinking mass spectrometry to obtain more insight into its upstream regulation and downstream target processes.
Sweet potato weevils (SPWs) pose one of the most significant challenges to sweet potato production. This study identifies two major SPW-resistant genes, SPWR1/2, and provides new insights into the mechanism of sweet potato defence against SPWs.
The glycosyltransferase enzyme RGGAT1 is shown to catalyse the addition of galacturonic acid into rhamnogalacturonan I, the backbone of the plant cell wall, with implications for in vitro pectin synthesis.
This study uncovered a gene duplication in legumes that produces a nodule-enriched nKCBP protein, a plant-specific kinesin motor, and found that rhizobia co-opts nKCBP to control vacuole morphogenesis in symbiotic cells, thus achieving successful endosymbiosis.
Using trait-based optimality theory that unifies stomatal responses and acclimation of plants to changing environments, this study builds a model of the coupling of CO2 and water vapour exchanges through the leaves. This successfully predicts the simultaneous decline in carbon assimilation, stomatal conductance and photosynthetic capacity during progressive droughts.
For a long time, root hairs were believed to expand via tip growth only. This study shows that the root hair shank undergoes considerable expansion too, which coincides with the deposition of new cell wall material in the shank.
Stomatal guard cells regulate CO2 entry to the leaf for photosynthesis but respond slowly to fluctuating light, thus reducing carbon assimilation and water use efficiencies. Substantial efficiency gains are realized by engineering the gating of a K+ channel native to the guard cells.
mGWAS reveals ZmICE1 as a key hub for integrating amino acid metabolic pathways and cold tolerance in maize. Natural variation in ZmICE1 promoter regulates the binding affinity of ZmMYB39, which confers the diverse cold tolerance in maize.
Reactive oxygen species are major regulatory molecules in diverse cellular processes. This article shows how an Arabidopsis thiol peroxidase, PRXIIB, senses endogenous H2O2 and regulates immune responses through a redox relay mechanism.
Comparative genomic analysis of 350 plant species reveals that cell-surface and intracellular immune receptor gene families co-expand or co-contract. This suggests an evolutionary relationship between the two branches of the plant immune system.
This study presents a chloroplast photosystem I structure identified by cryogenic electron microscopy from the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. In contrast to the cyanobacterial complex, the absence of PsaH and Lhca2 allows a head-to-head orientation of the photosystem I–light-harvesting complex I monomers.
Manipulation of genetic exchange is an important objective of plant breeders. Using chromosome engineering to invert a 17.1 Mb fragment on chromosome 2 in Arabidopsis thaliana, meiotic recombination could be suppressed in nearly the entire chromosome.
The genome of the model fern species Ceratopteris richardii reveals a history of remarkably dynamic genome evolution, including rapid changes in genome content and structure following the most recent whole-genome duplication approximately 60 million years ago.
Plants confronted with nutrient deficiency allocate more resources to roots to maximize nutrient acquisition and growth. This study uncovers how plants repress phosphate uploading to curtail the long-distance transportation of phosphate to shoots.
The evolutionarily conserved energy sensor SnRK1 interacts with and phosphorylates NLP7 to promote its cytoplasmic localization and degradation, thereby inhibiting nitrate signalling.
The chromosome-level genome of maidenhair fern, a model species representing the major homosporangium ferns, lays the foundation for studies on fern biology, origin of euphyllophytes and seed plant evolution.
Chromatin remodelling exerts nuclear control over plastid development: two Arabidopsis homologues of the NuA4 histone acetyltransferase component EPL1 mediate light-dependent activating chromatin remodelling at positions where genes required for chloroplast biogenesis are encoded.
The ancient expansion of savannahs has long been examined through models and palaeorecords, but this new experiment combining CO2 and drought finds the physiological mechanisms priming the forest-to-savannah transition.