Reviews & Analysis

Plants cannot escape from their enemies so they must rely on innate defences to fight off pests and pathogens. Salicylic acid (SA) is a plant hormone that regulates immunity. A new model for perception of the SA signal has been proposed, and could be of paramount importance in developing effective crop protection strategies.

The stigma has a tightly regulated functional lifespan and is therefore a key determinant for floral receptivity. New evidence reveals how two transcription factors play a pivotal role in controlling stigma lifespan by regulating developmental programmed cell death in this tissue to terminate pollen receptivity.

The emergence of vascular plants requires tightly regulated mechanisms to control the photosynthate transporting system. For phloem establishment and carbon allocation to sink tissues, a novel translational regulatory network involving a zinc-finger protein and RNA G-quadruplex is now revealed for the first time.

Trade-offs in clearing forests for rubber plantations depend on calculations of opportunity costs. Such costs are not just a matter of economic calculations but also the politics of the forests and those who live in them

Metabolon-formation governs the biosynthetic efficiency of natural plant products. Identification of membrane-anchored proteins has now led to discovery of the metabolic channelling mechanism of phenylpropanoid biosynthesis.

New radiocarbon dates of wheat remains from the lower Yellow River valley suggest that the west crop had been introduced to east China around 2600 bce (Before Common Era), rewriting the history of the spread of wheat into China.

This Review highlights current understanding of how polyploidization affects plant genome evolution by focusing on the post-polyploidization events, including gene retention, fractionation and subgenome dominance, and their implications on future research.

Microbial communities are not only of great importance in the human gut, but also play irreplaceable roles in sustaining plant growth and functions. In this Perspective, strategies to optimize microbiome usage in agroecosystems are proposed.

Chloroplasts contain their own genomes and genetic systems. Their ribosomes synthesize conserved core proteins in photosynthesis. A complete chloroplast ribosome structure now reveals features convergent with those of ribosomes in mitochondria.

The stem cell niche in plant shoots is maintained by carefully orchestrated feedback between a series of CLAVATA (CLV) receptors and their ligand CLV3, and the transcription factor WUSCHEL. A new clade of co-receptors, CLV3-insensitive receptor kinases (CIKs), provides an important missing link in CLV signalling.

Race-specific resistance genes represent essential genetic sources in crop breeding. Map-based cloning of the wheat Stb6 gene against Zymoseptoria tritici identified a wall-associated receptor kinase-like protein as a novel player in race-specific disease resistance.

Geneticists and breeders are enthralled with the variability of traits within a species, but fundamental questions remain about what types of molecular changes underlie phenotypic variation. An investigation of the transcriptomes of agricultural varieties of maize provides insights into the variability of gene expression and it’s phenotypic consequences.

Investigations of natural recovery in plants infected with oilseed rape mosaic virus unveil how secondary siRNAs mediate the attenuation of viral suppressors of RNA silencing and sink-to-source disease recovery.

This Perspective discusses recent progress in base editing, as well as potential applications in research and biotechnology.

Bacterial pathogens have a multitude of effectors that target plant host cells and promote disease. A case is made for a new suspect, phytate, as a target of a novel phytase activity for a type III effector of Xanthomonas.

To reduce climate warming we must stop adding CO₂ to the atmopshere, and develop approaches for removing it. Adding crushed, fast-reacting silicate rocks to croplands could improve productivity, restore soil quality and reduce atmospheric CO₂.

A major transitional step in Earth’s history was the conquest of land by plants, which fundamentally changed carbon cycling and elevated oxygen levels. In a moss model of early land plants, three out of six MIKC^C-type MADS-box transcription factors ensure external water conduction and the function of motile sperm.

A new genome sequence of the enigmatic seed plant Gnetum montanum reveals a nuclear genome that is as distinct as the rest of its biology.

High-throughput chromosome conformation capture studies comparing diploid and polyploid cotton varieties revealed evidence for stereotypical changes in chromatin contacts upon polyploidization.

Auxin-induced callus formation, known as a type of cell reprogramming, involves several transcription factors that act in lateral root initiation for plant development. Now, a new partnership of transcription factors is identified to reveal the regulatory network of auxin-induced cell reprogramming.