Molecular engineering in plants articles from across Nature Portfolio

An efficient method of cyto-swapping by haploid induction using a CENH3 mutation is reported in maize, to convert commercial germplasm to cytoplasmic male sterility for hybrid seed production.

Han et al. develop BoCENH3 mutants which trigger paternal haploid induction in Brassica oleracea. On the basis of this haploid inducer line, a workable system is proposed for transferring cytoplasmic male sterility to broccoli inbred lines.

Engineering the form and function of root systems and their associated microbiota could provide a means to mitigate adverse climate-driven effects. Here, the authors review the recent developments in plant and rhizobacterial synthetic biology and highlight engineering targets for applications in root systems and rhizosphere.

An engineered sensor NLR RGA5^HMA5 carrying multiple resurfaced interfaces was generated to confer complete resistance to the rice blast fungus strains expressing the non-corresponding effector AVR-PikD, paving a way to broaden the resistance spectra of NLRs.

Loading of specialized metabolites from maternal tissue into embryo requires coupled export and import processes. Using glucosinolate seed loading as a model, this study identified four critical barriers along the transport route from source to sink.

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.

Previous genetic engineering of plant secondary cell walls targeted its core polymers to facilitate their extractability. The ectopic introduction of the polymer callose into poplar wood secondary cell walls modifies the ultrastructure of cellulose microfibril aggregates and suggests new avenues when considering biomass genetic engineering.

The inclusion of retrotransposon long terminal repeats — and of other repeated sequences — enhances transfer DNA copy numbers in plant cells during transformation. Gene editing and homologous recombination-mediated gene targeting can therefore be improved by these means: however, the mechanism remains a mystery.

Crystal structure-guided exchange of mobile elements from red algal Rubisco into a related bacterial Rubisco enabled us to identify amino acid substitutions that enhance carbon dioxide (CO₂) fixation. In tobacco plants, the improved Rubisco supported a two-fold increase in photosynthetic rates compared with plants producing wild-type bacterial Rubisco.

New nanomaterials are being developed for efficient biomolecule delivery to plants. However, detection and quantification of plant cell entry are challenging and currently rely on subjective methods that lack proper controls. The necessary considerations of performing nanoparticle-mediated delivery in plants and how to accurately quantify delivery efficiency are discussed.