Articles in 2022

The re-emergence of ABP1 as an exciting auxin receptor, after a rather bumpy history, shows once again how scientific ideas can survive sudden losses in popularity.

Plants rely on cell-surface and intracellular immune receptors to activate immune responses and thwart microbial infection. Large-scale comparative genomic analysis reveals matching size variations of the repertoires for both types of receptors across plants during evolution.

We identified the function of mangrove ecosystems that underpin ecosystem services, their responses to extreme weather and climatic events, and their role as crucial social-ecological systems as important paradigms shaping mangrove research now and in times to come. Since themes around functions and connectivity, ecological resilience to extreme events, and human–environment interactions are likely to be important underpinnings for other coastal and terrestrial ecosystems too, this paper aims to promote discussion within and beyond the mangrove research community and to help the broader plant science field in viewing and understanding the issue of safeguarding mangrove forests for the future.

mGWAS reveals ZmICE1 as a key hub for integrating amino acid metabolic pathways and cold tolerance in maize. Natural variation in ZmICE1 promoter regulates the binding affinity of ZmMYB39, which confers the diverse cold tolerance in maize.

Reactive oxygen species are major regulatory molecules in diverse cellular processes. This article shows how an Arabidopsis thiol peroxidase, PRXIIB, senses endogenous H₂O₂ and regulates immune responses through a redox relay mechanism.

Comparative genomic analysis of 350 plant species reveals that cell-surface and intracellular immune receptor gene families co-expand or co-contract. This suggests an evolutionary relationship between the two branches of the plant immune system.

This study presents a chloroplast photosystem I structure identified by cryogenic electron microscopy from the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. In contrast to the cyanobacterial complex, the absence of PsaH and Lhca2 allows a head-to-head orientation of the photosystem I–light-harvesting complex I monomers.

At a time when food security is being threatened by climate change and population growth, regulatory systems must be designed to encourage innovation through all available technological means. Proposed changes to the concept of essential derivation will classify all mono-parental varieties as essentially derived, threatening the use of new breeding technologies to deliver crop improvement.

A major bottleneck in plant breeding is the establishment or breakage of genetic linkages by random, naturally occurring meiotic recombination. This problem can be overcome by CRISPR–Cas-mediated chromosome engineering. By inverting ~17 Mb of chromosome 2 of Arabidopsis thaliana, we almost completely suppressed genetic crossovers in nearly the entire chromosome.

Any long-term solution to the projected decline in phosphate supply must involve improving phosphorus use efficiency in crop plants.

Manipulation of genetic exchange is an important objective of plant breeders. Using chromosome engineering to invert a 17.1 Mb fragment on chromosome 2 in Arabidopsis thaliana, meiotic recombination could be suppressed in nearly the entire chromosome.

Cooperation between nitrogen assimilation and photosynthesis is central for plant growth and development in adaption to changing environmental conditions. This work reveals that the plant energy sensor SnRK1 represses nitrate signalling by phosphorylating NODULE INCEPTION PROTEIN-LIKE PROTEIN (NLP7) to promote its degradation in response to carbon deficiency or nitrate depletion.

Crop production depends to a very large extent on phosphorus fertilization, yet the sustainability of this practice is limited by the predicted exhaustion of phosphorus resources. A new molecular pathway regulating phosphorus accumulation in plants has been identified, with PHO1 found to play a pivotal role in mediating it.