The plasma membrane Na⁺/H⁺ exchanger SOS1 is crucial for plant salt tolerance. Here the authors report the structure of SOS1 from Arabidopsis thaliana in two conformations, which provide structural and functional insight into SOS1 activity regulation.

The cryo-EM structures of SOS1 in the auto-inhibited and activated states reveal that SOS1 undergoes an inhibition–release process upon activation and uses an elevator transport mechanism for Na⁺/H⁺ exchange in response to salt stress.

Using transcriptomic data from ~100,000 informative cells, this study constructed a dynamic cell atlas during the process of de-etiolation induced by light for Arabidopsis seedlings, revealing comprehensive development responses at single-cell resolution.

¹⁴C measurements show coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) remobilize decades- to century-old carbon reserves to regrow leaves after a rare fire. To do so, trees resprout from dormant bud tissue maintained for centuries or more.

A full pot of diversity is discovered in the tea pangenome.

A comprehensive pangenome map of 22 elite tea cultivars unveils genetic variants that influence flavour, leaf colour and bud flush timing, facilitating our understanding of the molecular basis of tea quality and genomics-assisted breeding.

Genomic polyploidy is prevalent in the plant kingdom, giving rise to dominant and recessive subgenomes. We show that the recessive subgenomes of the pitcher plant Nepenthes gracilis had a crucial role in the acquisition of novel genes with species-specific function such as dioecy and carnivory.

The genome of the Asian pitcher plant shows a decaploid structure and highlights the differential contributions of subgenomes to the evolution of novel genes, such as those associated with dioecy and trapping pitcher leaves.

John Donne famously said that nobody “is an island entire of itself”. This month sees the opening-up of a new ‘continent’ for plant scientists.

We report the discovery and characterization of two small coiled-coil proteins that belong to the central element of the plant synaptonemal complex.