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This study sheds light on the mechanisms by which different MYB and bHLH transcription factors select their partners to form complexes, and reveals two types of MYB–bHLH interaction modes that are evolutionarily conserved but evolved independently in plants.
This study examines the differential rates of lightning damage and mortality among tree species across a tropical forest in Panama, finding differences in species tolerance to lightning with implications for how lightning shapes forest composition and ecosystem function.
This study established a comprehensive poly(A) tail atlas comprising over 120 million full-length RNA reads from various tissues and plant species and found that plant poly(A) tails peaked at 20 and 45 nucleotides, except in pollen and seed where they peaked at longer sizes.
The behaviour of cellulose synthase and its interaction with microtubules are affected by mechanical stress. The interaction of cellulose synthase with microtubules impedes the response of microtubules to mechanical stress.
Hypocotyl cell elongation is promoted by combinatorial action of PIF4 and CDF2. This occurs because PIF4 enhances binding of CDF2 to common target genes increasing their transcription. These genes include the auxin biosynthesis gene YUCCA8.
Phenology studies tend to use air temperature instead of plant tissue temperature. This study provides evidence that air and plant temperatures differ to such an extent as to make us reconsider our current interpretation of phenology.
This paper examines how the relationship between native and alien plants changes the nature of an invasion, finding that the stages, and ultimate success, of an invasion are intrinsically linked to the phylogenetic relationship.
Exploring the occurrence of the level of water saturation of air within leaves uncovers a mechanism for maintaining photosynthesis and vascular flow under dry conditions.
Nitrogen fixation by legumes into the soil has long been known to benefit other plants, but this study finds a bidirectional relationship by which grasses help provide key nutrients for legumes. Grasses and clovers exploit soil nutrients better together than separately.
The phloem pole atlas has over 10,000 cells, with an unprecedented resolution of the transcriptional dynamics in phloem development. Despite distinct mature transcriptional states, co-expression networks show common states in protophloem-adjacent cells.
In Arabidopsis cells undergoing mitosis, centromere distribution is shown to be regulated by two steps: scattering in M-phase and stabilization in interphase. This may affect the maintenance of genome integrity rather than gene regulation.
Root exudates play a key role in modulating the soil microbiota. The export of bitter triterpenes (mediated by a Multidrug and Toxic Compound Extrusion protein) shapes the rhizosphere, leading to robust disease resistance.
Combining very high-resolution imagery of dryland forests worldwide with climate and aquifer data from the mid-Holocene period, this paper illustrates how geological forces of the past shaped today’s forests.
While organic agriculture has been found to outperform conventional methods on multiple sustainability measures, this Article examines the effects of farm size on agroecological practices and finds that as organic farms get larger, they exhibit more conventional traits.
Using Brachypodium distachyon as a wheat proxy, Wang et al. identified DUO-B1, an AP2/ERF transcription factor, regulating spike type in wheat. duo-B1 leads to increased yield under field conditions without affecting other major agronomic traits.
This study reports the genomic changes underlying the convergent and divergent agronomic improvement of the female and male heterotic groups during modern hybrid maize breeding, laying a foundation for the dissection and utilization of maize heterosis.
How the plant immune signalling hub EDS1 is activated by pathogen elicitors remains enigmatic. Li et al. show that fungal elicitor perception can induce EDS1 phosphorylation by a plasma membrane tethering kinase after elegant subcellular coordination.
Mitochondrial ascorbate peroxidase (PtomtAPX) is relocated to cell walls undergoing programmed cell death and catalyses lignin polymerization. These results show how xylem cells provide autonomous enzymes needed for lignin polymerization.
The chromosomal-level genome assembly of a species from the earliest branching monocot, Acorus tatarinowii, provides evidence to trace the ancestral monocot chromosomes, and hints that the monocot ancestor might have an aquatic or wetland origin.
This study shows that Dof transcription factors in the phloem precursors not only induce formation of phloem, but also cause secretion of CLE peptides, which in turn inhibit phloem formation in neighbourhing cells by post-transcriptionally decreasing Dofs.