Volume 9 Issue 10, October 2023

A robust strategy to obtain edited crops without integration of a transgene is developed based on co-editing the ALS gene and a gene of interest.

Single-nucleus transcriptomic analysis of Medicago roots reveals dynamic cell-specific responses to the Nod factor — a bacterially secreted chito-lipopolysaccharide with a key role in the root nodule symbiosis between legumes and rhizobia — and identifies the receptor-like kinase FERONIA as a phosphorylation target of the Nod factor receptor LYK3, which together function to control nodule formation and bacterial infection.

By assembling a high-quality carrot reference genome and resequencing 630 accessions, a study by Coe et al. reveals the transformative journey of carrot from wild progenitor to modern cultivar and the concomitant accumulation of carotenoids in its taproot.

To control the movement of water and nutrients, vascular plants seal the paracellular space between adjacent endodermal cells with a tight junction-like complex comprising the Casparian strip and Casparian strip membrane domain. In rice, GAPLESS proteins mediate the attachment of these two components and enable nutrient homeostasis.

We identified ZmGLK36, a resistance gene against rice black-streaked dwarf virus (RBSDV), in maize. ZmGLK36 mediates resistance by regulating jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis and JA-mediated defence response; it also grants resistance to RBSDV to other cereal crops, such as rice and wheat.

Two independently evolved lineages of holoparasites — Balanophora (Santalales) and Sapria (Malpighiales) — display massively convergent characteristics of genome modifications, including gene loss in major pathways, reduction of multigene families and generally relaxed selection pressure. These findings provide valuable new insights into the fascinating biology of parasitic plants.

Huang et al. develop a potent genome editing toolkit to generate transgene-free genome-edited plants in the T0 generation by co-editing of ALS gene (without obvious fitness costs) and gene(s) of interest via Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression.

Cheng et al. show that the root-derived long non-coding RNA ELENA1 is systemically mobile under nitrogen deficiency in a root-to-shoot manner to calibrate leaf senescence by dissociating the MED19a–ORE1 transcriptional complex.

Cardenolides such as digoxin from foxglove (Digitalis spp.) have been used to treat congenital heart conditions, cancer and other chronic diseases for decades. Here, authors report CYP87A enzymes that catalyse pregnenolone formation, the key entry point to the cardenolide pathway in plants.

Clark and colleagues show that plant anatomical diversity evolved episodically over geologic time, reflecting ecological expansion facilitated by reproductive innovations. This is paralleled in animals and fungi, suggesting a general evolutionary mode for multicellular bodyplans.

The independently evolved extreme holoparasites Balanophora and Sapria display convergent characteristics of genome modifications, including gene loss in particular pathways, reduction of multigene families and relaxed selection pressures.

This study demonstrates that orange carrot was selected during the Renaissance period, probably in western Europe, through the selection of three recessive genes that increased the provitamin A carotenoid (α- and β-carotene) content.

FS8.1, a non-canonical GT-2 factor, controls the elongated fruit shape and crush resistance of processing tomatoes. This study provides a potential route to rapidly customize machine-harvestable fresh-market tomatoes without reducing quality values.

Sex determination evolved to control unisexual flowers. This study shows that ethylene produced in the carpel activates the expression of CmHB40 in stamens to inhibit genes required for stamen development and yield female flowers in melon.

Studying cultivar-specific sensitivities of yield components to environmental variables during developmental subphases provides deep insight into the three-way interactions between phenology, yield formation and environmental fluctuations.

Cryo-EM structures are determined for the abscisic acid (ABA) exporter ABCG25 in Arabidopsis in the apo, ABA-bound and ATP-bound states, which facilitate our understanding of the ABA transport and signalling processes in plants.

The 3D structure of plant hormone ABA transporter ABCG25 reveals the molecular mechanism underlying substrate-specific recognition and transport and provides new insights to the physiological study of ABA and plant ABC transporters.

A novel resistance gene against maize rough dwarf disease was identified, which confers broad resistance to the virus pathogen infecting multiple cereal crops by regulating jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis and JA-mediated defence response.

Single-nucleus transcriptomes uncover cell type-specific gene reprogramming in response to nod factors in Medicago, including a defence response at 30 min, which largely returned to normal at 6 h. The results reveal that MtFER interacts with LYK3 and regulates rhizobial symbiosis.

This study reports a new family of proteins localized in the Casparian strip that mediate the junction of plasma membrane and Casparian strip for maintaining nutrient homoeostasis in rice.

A deep-learning-based ‘organelle segmentation network’ (OrgSegNet), performing pixel-wise segmentation to identify various organelles, is an innovative tool for plant organelle phenotyping and 3D cell reconstruction.