Reviews & Analysis

A new player and mode of action has been discovered in the creation of a dominance hierarchy in the Brassicaceae self-incompatibility system.

A straightforward approach reveals the full cholesterol biosynthetic pathway in tomato, which is composed of ten enzymatic steps, opening the door for bioengineering of high-value molecules in crops. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that cholesterogenesis evolved from the more ancient phytosterol pathway.

Two recent studies revealed the genetic architecture of the long fascinating heterostyly in Primula and that the absence of a CYP^T gene determines the long style morph.

Photosynthetic organisms must protect themselves from damage during high-light conditions. This Review shows how cyanobacteria trigger such photoprotection using the orange carotenoid protein.

Photosynthesis in C₃ plants is limited by the kinetics of the CO₂-fixing enzyme Rubisco. Natural variation in Rubisco can be exploited to provide new avenues for adapting photosynthetic performance to a changing climate while reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture.

The specialized photosynthesis adopted by drought-resilient crassulacean acid metabolism plants has inverted the diel stomatal opening behaviour of their ancestral C₃ plants. This was achieved via large-scale reprogramming of expression of the signal transduction machinery and a coordinate shift in the cellular redox poise.

A recent survey of transcript abundance in wheat grains found accumulation of mRNAs encoding key enzymes of C₄ photosynthesis. However, this is not the same as showing that the C₄ pathway operates in these tissues.

A new study uncovers thousands of RNA-directed DNA methylation target sites masked by the active removal of methylated cytosines by a demethylating enzyme.

A Review discusses the currently known non-canonical RNA-directed DNA methylation mechanisms, their diversity and interconnections, and puts forward the key unanswered questions in this field.

The mechanism for T-DNA integration, a critical step of Agrobacterium-mediated transgenesis, remains poorly understood. Now, a study based on mutant analysis shows that Pol θ controls T-DNA integration and generates error-prone footprints at integration sites.

Genome sequencing reveals similarities between rice grown by Maroon communities in Suriname and landraces from the Guinea Highlands of West Africa.

A new sequencing study in Arabidopsis lyrata permits comparison of imprinted genes with the closely related A. thaliana and furthers our understanding of both the proximate and ultimate causes of genomic imprinting.

A new study using sorghum demonstrates how breeders can efficiently mine genetic diversity from plant gene banks.

The core of the photosynthetic complex photosystem I had been assumed to require contact with its associated light-harvesting complex I to function. But a mutant Arabidopsis line lacking the components of this complex shows that a plant's photosynthetic apparatus is more adaptable to changes in its environment than previously thought.

Abscisic acid (ABA) dynamically balances plant water use and availability. It is synthesized during water deficit and quickly catabolized into breakdown products previously thought to be largely inactive. New work demonstrates that phaseic acid, a major ABA catabolite, is a weak ABA receptor agonist with its own auxiliary role in water relations.

Many plants detect bacteria by the receptor FLS2 that binds the flagellin epitope flg22. A new pattern recognition receptor FLS3 in tomato detects flagellin from a second side; a further move in the evolutionary game of ‘hide and seek’ where pathogens evade recognition and hosts evolve novel immunoreceptors to detect them.

This Review summarizes current understanding of the non-self- and self-recognition systems of self-incompatibility and their evolution. The non-self-recognition model suggests that the transition from self-compatibility to self-incompatibility could be more common than previously thought.

Rising atmospheric CO₂ is expected to boost crop yields during drought events because it promotes stomatal closure and saves water. However, field experiments with soybean in a simulated future CO₂ atmosphere suggest that crop canopy interactions with climate might prevent this mechanism from delivering its expected benefits.

Restoration of damaged ecosystems usually involves fairly crude techniques. A new study suggests that the use of soil inocula can ‘design’ new target communities more subtly.

The fitness costs of individual resistance (R) genes detected in previous studies suggest an impossibly high genetic load associated with disease resistance, if true for all R genes. However, new research shows that Arabidopsis plants with resistant Rps2 are no less fit than those with a susceptible Rps2 allele in the absence of disease.