Flooding articles from across Nature Portfolio

Oxygen is essential for plant life. Here the authors define new functions and components of the plant oxygen sensing mechanism providing an understanding of the biochemistry of sensing and physiological responses allowing plant roots to survive in the soil.

Elongated coleoptile contributes submergence tolerance during germination of direct seeded rice. Here, the authors show that natural variation of rice coleoptile length is determined by the glycosyltransferase encoding gene OsUGT75A by reducing free ABA and JA levels through glycosylation of these two phytohormones.

A mechanism by which plants detect and respond to oxygen starvation has been known for some years. Three recent papers suggest that we haven’t been seeing the full picture.

Hypoxia has long been studied in relation to anaerobic metabolism. It has now been shown to control development, acting as a cue to maintain the seedling's protective apical hook and a trigger of developmental decisions both before and after the plantlet emerges from the soil into the light.