News & Views

High-quality genomes of the cultivated strawberry’s progenitors provide the strongest evidence to date for the identity and chromosomal composition of the four subgenomes of octoploid strawberry.

Organisms have developed specialized and intricate mechanisms to cope with environmental threats that depend on their natural habitat and ability to move. Arabidopsis demonstrates an impressive adaptation using cryptochrome 1 to maintain genomic stability through a blue-light-mediated process that involves the recruitment of repair proteins to double-strand breaks.

The destructive panicle disease rice false smut is caused by the biotrophic fungus Ustilaginoidea virens. Disease-suppressive microorganisms present in rice panicles have now been found to mediate fungal resistance by modulating the metabolism of the host plant.

The nucleoskeleton maintains nuclear integrity and chromatin organization at the inner nuclear surface. Here, Wang et al. revealed a disassociation of nuclear skeleton proteins from the nuclear periphery upon heat stress, which affects genome architecture and alters gene expression.

Transcriptomics of nitrogen-fixing plants and their symbionts reveals the origins of root-nodulating symbiosis and how it has endured more in some groups than others

The new structure for the H⁺-coupled sucrose uptake transporter AtSUC1 helps us understand the mechanism used by plants for cellular sucrose uptake and phloem loading.

The regulatory networks that underlie the regeneration capacity of wheat reveal new opportunities for overcoming barriers to highly efficient and genotype-independent transformation.

Short-term heat stress affects the morphology and function of the plant Golgi apparatus in a reversible manner. The autophagy component AUTOPHAGY 8 relocalizes to heat stress-induced vacuolated Golgi cisternae and contributes to their restoration, revealing a role of this protein outside of the canonical autophagy pathway.

The flat structure of a leaf blade enables it to function as a photosynthetic organ for efficient light capture. The leaf rim or the edge-most region of leaf margin directs the planar growth of both leaves and ligules in grasses.

Hormone-dependent suberin deposition is a key process in root development and in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. A recent study demonstrates that long- and short-distance transport of abscisic acid (ABA) and gibberellin (GA) via four members of the nitrate and peptide transporter family (NPFs) is crucial for endodermal suberization in roots.

Only a limited subset of angiosperms produce cannabinoids. Evidence for the independent evolution of cannabinoid biosynthesis was discovered in the South African plant Helichrysum umbraculigerum. This discovery provides an alternative set of enzymes that will expand the synthetic biology toolbox for those interested in manipulating the pathway for drug discovery.

Sequences of almost 800 wheat genomes have retraced the history of wheat: when and where it was domesticated, how cultivation spread from its Middle Eastern centre of origin and how the genome adapted to selective pressures in new agricultural habitats, not least thanks to its ability to take up genes from wild cousins.

A tethering approach based on a LexA–CENH3 fusion protein in maize activates functional centromeres at synthetic LexO repeat arrays. The synthetic centromeres cause fragmentation of the resulting dicentric chromosomes, resulting in stably inherited and self-sustaining neochromosomes.

Using leaf explants and morphological regulator genes (Babyboom and Wuschel 2) driven by new promoter combinations, an efficient transformation and genome editing system is developed in maize and sorghum and successfully applied in seven other Poaceae grass species.

Various clades of legume plants irreversibly modify the development of their symbiotic nitrogen-fixing microorganisms. Key transcription factors controlling this process have been identified. They are conserved and functional even in plant species that do not induce such a terminal differentiation.

In Arabidopsis, the final size of the seed is determined early on during its development by the growth of a single multinucleate cell, the coenocytic endosperm. The endosperm arises from a second fertilization event, alongside the embryo, and dominates the onset of seed development while later nourishing and supporting embryo growth.

Plant cells possess a bewildering number of different intracellular transport routes. A comprehensive interactome-based analysis on a set of core players unravels novel common components and surprising connections.

In plant mitochondria, NADH dehydrogenase (complex I) and the cytochrome bc₁ complex (complex III) form a I + III₂ supercomplex, which is thought to stabilize the structure of the component complexes. Protein–protein interactions at three sites on the membrane arm of complex I partly resemble those in mammals, but also have plant-specific features.

Analysis of cambial development in the tree Populus trichocarpa reveals how a zinc-finger transcription factor, Populus trichocarpa VASCULAR CAMBIUM-SPECIFIC 2 (PtrVCS2), controls the rate of cell proliferation by changing the dynamics of histone acetylation at the Populus trichocarpa WUSCHEL-RELATED HOMEOBOX4a (PtrWOX4a) promoter.

The long and trailing vines of most cucurbits represent an undomesticated trait that hampers dense planting and yields, and also incurs a high labour cost. A targeted artificial evolution strategy was developed to suppress stem elongation of cucurbits in a dose-dependent manner, thereby enhancing yield and reducing labour costs.