Reviews & Analysis

Here we show that photoexcited blue light receptor cryptochrome 2 (CRY2) mediates blue light-induced liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) of CRY2–SPA1–FIO1 trimolecular complexes. This activates the N⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) writer FIONA1 (FIO1) to methylate mRNAs that encode chloroplast proteins, which are required for maintaining chlorophyll homeostasis and photosynthesis in response to light.

We reveal that a family of plant stress-induced signalling peptides, SERINE-RICH ENDOGENOUS PEPTIDES (SCOOPs), is much larger than originally thought, and identify key proteases required for their biogenesis. We find that impairing SCOOP biogenesis phenocopies a mutant of the SCOOP receptor MALE DISCOVERER 1-INTERACTING RECEPTOR-LIKE KINASE 2 (MIK2).

Following a catastrophic wildfire, iconic coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees rebuilt their canopies by leveraging massive, stored carbon reserves, some of which were photosynthesized from the atmosphere 50–100 years ago. New leaves grew from buried buds, which had been dormant for 500–1,000 plus years in the oldest trees.

The Lycopodium alkaloids represent a valuable source of neuroactive compounds. The biosynthesis of these specialized metabolites is now shown to involve three α-carbonic anhydrase-like enzymes that are responsible for constructing the key carbon–carbon bonds within their distinctive polycyclic alkaloid structures.

This Perspective discusses six regulatory options following the proposition of the European Commission to amend European Union’s legislation for plants obtained with new genomic techniques.

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

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.

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

We report the high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy structures of SOS1, a major determinant of salt tolerance in plants. From our structural and functional analyses, we propose a model for how the unique large cytoplasmic domain regulates the Na⁺/H⁺ exchange activity of SOS1, enhancing our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning the regulation of SOS1 activity.

The plasma membrane Na⁺/H⁺ antiporter SOS1 has a pivotal role in determining salinity tolerance in plants. This study investigates the structure and function of SOS1 from Oryza sativa (rice), elucidating its architecture and activation mechanism, with notable implications for improving crop salt tolerance.

CRISPR-derived base editors can induce guide RNA (gRNA)-independent DNA and RNA off-target edits in eukaryotic cells due to “spurious deamination” by enclosed deaminases. Splitting base editors at a site in a Cas9 nickase-embedded deaminase allows gRNA-mediated base editor reassembly and activation at the target site to suppress unguided off-target edits.

Microscopic visualization of the ARP2/3 complex showed that it colocalizes with peroxisomes in Arabidopsis thaliana and tobacco cells in vivo. Colocalization with an autophagy marker and analysis of peroxisomes in autophagy-mutant or ARP2/3-mutant lines demonstrated that ARP2/3 facilitates peroxisome degradation by the autophagic pathway, that is, pexophagy.

We assessed climatic and productivity trends across the world’s five Mediterranean forest ecosystems and detected large-scale, abrupt forest browning in Chile. Extreme dry and warm conditions in Chile, unprecedented in the recent history of all Mediterranean-type ecosystems, are projected to arise in the second half of this century.

In angiosperms, the proliferation and differentiation of egg and central cells need to be repressed before fertilization. Autonomous endosperm development has been observed and well-studied in Arabidopsis mutants of FERTILIZATION INDEPENDENT SEED (FIS)-class POLYCOMB REPRESSIVE COMPLEX 2 (PRC2), but how defects of PRC2 components affect embryo development remains unclear. Wu et al. now describe an essential clue for understanding parthenogenetic embryogenesis from the rice double mutant osfie1 osfie2.

By assembling a high-quality carrot reference genome and resequencing 630 accessions, a study by Coe et al. reveals the transformative journey of carrot from wild progenitor to modern cultivar and the concomitant accumulation of carotenoids in its taproot.

Single-nucleus transcriptomic analysis of Medicago roots reveals dynamic cell-specific responses to the Nod factor — a bacterially secreted chito-lipopolysaccharide with a key role in the root nodule symbiosis between legumes and rhizobia — and identifies the receptor-like kinase FERONIA as a phosphorylation target of the Nod factor receptor LYK3, which together function to control nodule formation and bacterial infection.

Two independently evolved lineages of holoparasites — Balanophora (Santalales) and Sapria (Malpighiales) — display massively convergent characteristics of genome modifications, including gene loss in major pathways, reduction of multigene families and generally relaxed selection pressure. These findings provide valuable new insights into the fascinating biology of parasitic plants.

We identified ZmGLK36, a resistance gene against rice black-streaked dwarf virus (RBSDV), in maize. ZmGLK36 mediates resistance by regulating jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis and JA-mediated defence response; it also grants resistance to RBSDV to other cereal crops, such as rice and wheat.

To control the movement of water and nutrients, vascular plants seal the paracellular space between adjacent endodermal cells with a tight junction-like complex comprising the Casparian strip and Casparian strip membrane domain. In rice, GAPLESS proteins mediate the attachment of these two components and enable nutrient homeostasis.

A robust strategy to obtain edited crops without integration of a transgene is developed based on co-editing the ALS gene and a gene of interest.