Abiotic articles from across Nature Portfolio

As sessile organisms, plants grow under continuously fluctuating nitrogen (N) nutrient environments. Here, the authors uncovered that root TGA1/4, as key transcription factors, regulate the expression of nitrate uptake genes by binding to shoot-derived transcriptional cofactors that reflect shoot N demand.

A chromosome-level genome assembly for Chrysosplenium sinicum combined with transcriptomic and metabolomic data provides insights into the adaptive evolution of shade plants as well as the pathways responsible for biosynthesis of chrysosplenol and chrysosplenoside.

In vivo mercury demethylation by rice plants, involving neither light nor microorganisms, has major implications for human health and possibly even global mercury cycling.

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).

With a better understanding of the soil microbiome and its interactions with plants, designing a synthetic bacterial community may complement current agricultural practices to enhance plant performance on marginal soils.

Crop production depends to a very large extent on phosphorus fertilization, yet the sustainability of this practice is limited by the predicted exhaustion of phosphorus resources. A new molecular pathway regulating phosphorus accumulation in plants has been identified, with PHO1 found to play a pivotal role in mediating it.