Volume 10 Issue 7, July 2024

Degradome sequencing of semi-active DCL1 mutants separates true miRNAs from DCL1-independent small RNAs in Arabidopsis thaliana and illustrates the processing pattern of 147 pri-miRNAs. In parallel, DMS-MaPseq decodes the in vivo secondary structures of pri-miRNAs, enabling a better understanding of cleavage modes and of the impact of DCL1 cofactors on cleavage.

Desiccation tolerance evolved multiple times across the land plants for survival in water-limited habitats. We find that desiccation tolerance evolved convergently in grasses by independent duplication of the same gene family and activation of conserved, ancestral protective pathways.

To enhance cross-species single-cell analysis, the authors find gene pairs with similar expression patterns across 13 species. These coexpression proxies serve as common features in datasets, improving integrative and comparative cell-type analysis.

Martre et al. found that to achieve the full yield potential of improved wheat varieties, nitrogen fertilizer use would need to increase fourfold over current use, which would unavoidably increase the environmental impacts of wheat production.

Fossil seeds (60 to 20 million years old) from Colombia, Panama and Perú show previously unrecognized patterns of diversity and local extinctions of grapes in the New World. These also support a tentative origin of Vitis in the New World.

This study reveals the transition of move and evolve strategies and their interaction with niche opportunity and trait innovation throughout the diversification of the grape family—a globally distributed plant group originated in the Cretaceous.

Marks et al. explore the repeated evolution of desiccation tolerance in grasses. Their analysis of diverse resurrection grasses reveals significant genetic convergence and parallel evolution, suggesting a shared foundation for adapting to extreme drought.

Parallel degradome sequencing and DMS-MaPseq pinpoint the first cleavage sites on bona fide pri-miRNAs, decode their in vivo structure and provide better interpretation of the cleavage modes and impact of DCL1 cofactors in the process in Arabidopsis.