Plant sciences articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    The logistical and practical challenges of supplying food for long-term space missions are substantial. In this comment, the authors discuss potential biotechnological approaches that could be used to aid the production of food crops in space.

    • Yongming Liu
    • , Gengxin Xie
    •  & Maozhi Ren

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Whether rewetting leads to effective restoration of drained peatlands is unclear. Here the authors analyse a large number of near-natural and rewetted fen peatland sites in Europe, finding persistent differences in plant community composition and ecosystem functioning, and higher variance in the restored sites.

    • J. Kreyling
    • , F. Tanneberger
    •  & G. Jurasinski

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lipid droplet biogenesis originates at the endoplasmic reticulum and is defined by a specific set of lipids and proteins. Here, the authors show that sterols play an important role in coordinating oil and oleosin biosynthesis for the formation of lipid droplets in plant leaves and seeds.

    • Linhui Yu
    • , Jilian Fan
    •  & Changcheng Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Peptide signals generated during plant microbe interactions can trigger immune responses in plants. Here the authors show that SCOOP12, a member of a family of peptides present in Brassicaceae plants, and SCOOP12-like motifs in Fusarium fungi, can trigger immune responses following perception by the MIK2 receptor kinase.

    • Shuguo Hou
    • , Derui Liu
    •  & Ping He

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Perilla is a young allotetraploid species within the mint family Lamiaceae. Here, the authors assemble the genomes of a tetraploid species and its diploid progenitor, characterize the incipient diploidization of the tetraploid, conduct population genetics analyses, and identify loci associate with pigmentation and oil content.

    • Yujun Zhang
    • , Qi Shen
    •  & Shilin Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    XopC2 effectors are present in many plant bacterial pathogens. Here the authors show that XopC2 has kinase activity and enhances disease susceptibility by phosphorylating the OSK1 protein, which increases its interaction with the jasmonate receptor COI1b to promote JA signaling and stomatal opening.

    • Shanzhi Wang
    • , Shuai Li
    •  & Wenxian Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How soybean, a temperate origin crop, adapted to a tropical environment remains unclear. Here, the authors report Tof16, an ortholog of LHY, and the previously identified J locus, control soybean yield under short-day condition and loss of function of these two genes contributes to the adaptation to tropics.

    • Lidong Dong
    • , Chao Fang
    •  & Baohui Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photosynthetic Complex I (PS-CI) is proposed to couple ferredoxin oxidation and plastoquinone reduction to proton pumping across thylakoid membranes. Here the authors determine the reduction potentials of the iron-sulphur clusters of PS-CI and thus the bioenergetics of the electron transfer relay.

    • Katherine H. Richardson
    • , John J. Wright
    •  & Maxie M. Roessler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships may vary with climate. Here, the authors study relationships of plant and soil microbial diversity with soil nutrient multifunctionality in 130 dryland sites in China, finding a shift towards greater importance of soil microbial diversity in arid conditions.

    • Weigang Hu
    • , Jinzhi Ran
    •  & Jianming Deng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The fraction of leaf nitrogen allocated to RuBisCO indicates differing nitrogen use strategies of plants and varies considerably. Here the authors show that this variation is largely driven by leaf thickness and phosphorus content with light intensity, atmospheric dryness and soil pH also having considerable influence.

    • Xiangzhong Luo
    • , Trevor F. Keenan
    •  & Yao Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    MADS transcription factors regulate multiple aspects of plant development. Here the authors show that the intervening I domain is conserved in both type I and type II plant MADS lineages and contributes to the functional identity of the protein by influencing both DNA binding activity and dimerisation specificity.

    • Xuelei Lai
    • , Rosario Vega-Léon
    •  & Chloe Zubieta

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The genetic basis of low-temperature tolerance in maize is unclear. Here, the authors show that the type-A Response Regulator 1 (ZmRR1) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MPK8) are positive and negative regulators of maize chilling tolerance, and ZmRR1 is phosphorylated by ZmMPK8 during cold treatment.

    • Rong Zeng
    • , Zhuoyang Li
    •  & Shuhua Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Existing methods for non-invasively monitoring water flow in plants have limited spatial/temporal resolution. Here, the authors report that Raman microspectroscopy, complemented by hydrodynamic modelling, can monitor hydrodynamics within living root tissues at cell- and sub-second-scale resolutions.

    • Flavius C. Pascut
    • , Valentin Couvreur
    •  & Kevin F. Webb

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crossover numbers and positions are tightly controlled but the mechanism involved is still obscure. Here, the authors, using quantitative super-resolution cytogenetics and mathematical modelling, show that diffusion mediated coarsening of HEI10, an E3-ligase domain containing protein, may explain meiotic crossover positioning in Arabidopsis.

    • Chris Morgan
    • , John A. Fozard
    •  & Martin Howard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    To explore the nature of wild and cultivated mandarins, the authors carry out genomic analysis of diverse east Asian citrus. The discovery of a wild species Citrus ryukyuensis native to the Ryukyu islands and a new population of wild mainland Asian mandarin explains the origin and diversity of mandarins and their ability to reproduce apomictically.

    • Guohong Albert Wu
    • , Chikatoshi Sugimoto
    •  & Daniel S. Rokhsar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Gravitropism is the process by which plants perceive and respond to gravity. Here the authors identify a minus-end-directed kinesin required for gravity-triggered actin filament rearrangement and negative gravitropic response in the moss Physcomitrella patens, thus linking a microtubule-based cellular motor to gravitropism via actin.

    • Yufan Li
    • , Zhaoguo Deng
    •  & Haodong Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plant sulfate transporters mediate absorption and distribution of sulfate. Here the authors present functional assays and a cryo-EM structure of the Arabidopsis SULTR4;1 transporter identifying key domains for dimerization, substrate binding and coupling of transport activity to a proton gradient.

    • Lie Wang
    • , Kehan Chen
    •  & Ming Zhou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    HAP2 is essential for gamete fusion during fertilization and is conserved among eukaryotes. Here the authors show that species-specific adhesion between Chlamydomonas plus and minus gametes initiates HAP2 to undergo a fusogenic conformational change into homotrimers via a molecular mechanism akin to that of enveloped viruses.

    • Jun Zhang
    • , Jennifer F. Pinello
    •  & William J. Snell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rare earth elements are widely used in agriculture to promote plant growth. Here the authors show that aerial application of a rare earth element to the leaves triggers a graft-transmissible, RbohD- and jasmonic acid-dependent systemic signal that triggers endocytosis and mineral nutrient uptake in roots.

    • Mengzhu Cheng
    • , Lihong Wang
    •  & Zhenbiao Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The apical style in Arabidopsis is formed following a bilateral-to-radial symmetry transition in the gynoecium. Here the authors show that the final step in style radialization is coordinated by the adaxial regulators HAT3 and ATHB4, which are induced by the SPT and HEC transcription factors.

    • Monica Carabelli
    • , Luana Turchi
    •  & Laila Moubayidin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    MORC ATPases are required for transposable element silencing and heterochromatin condensation in plants and animals. Here the authors show that Arabidopsis MORCs colocalize with sites of RNA-directed DNA methylation and provide evidence that they act as molecular tethers to efficiently establish DNA methylation.

    • Yan Xue
    • , Zhenhui Zhong
    •  & Steven E. Jacobsen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Welwitschia mirabilis is a unique plant that only has two leaves, but it can survive in hostile conditions of the African desert. Here, the authors report its chromosome-level genome assembly and discuss how gene function and regulation have given rise to its unique morphology and environmental adaptions.

    • Tao Wan
    • , Zhiming Liu
    •  & Qingfeng Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chloroplast development and brassinosteroid (BR) signaling both regulate plant photomorphogenesis. Here the authors show that DAY, a DnaJ-like domain-containing membrane protein, regulates both processes by binding and stabilizing both BRI1, the BR receptor, and POR, a key enzyme in chlorophyll biosynthesis.

    • Ho-Seok Lee
    • , Ilyeong Choi
    •  & Hyun-Sook Pai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Diploid potatoes are typically self-incompatible, complicating efforts to breed diploid cultivars. Here the authors report map-based cloning of the S-locus inhibitor (Sli) gene in potato which encodes a non S-locus F-box protein that is expressed in pollen and can functions like a general S-RNase inhibitor to overcome self-incompatibility.

    • Ling Ma
    • , Chunzhi Zhang
    •  & Yi Shang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pecan is an important specialty crop that has experienced extensive interspecific hybridization and nearly-obligate outcrossing. Here, the authors assemble diploid genomes of four outbred genotypes, identify interspecific introgressions through comparative genomics analyses, and map QTLs associated with pest resistance.

    • John T. Lovell
    • , Nolan B. Bentley
    •  & Jennifer J. Randall

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bacterial pathogens can subvert host cell processes through secreted proteins but the precise mechanisms and repertoire of proteins remains unclear. Here the authors report that a bacterial effector protein of Xanthomonas campestris, XopR, undergoes liquid-liquid phase separation to hijack the host cell actin cytoskeleton.

    • He Sun
    • , Xinlu Zhu
    •  & Yansong Miao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The LEC1 transcription factor is expressed in both embryo and endosperm during seed development. Here the authors show that LEC1 expression in the endosperm is necessary and sufficient for embryo maturation and that LEC1 protein is trafficked to the embryo to activate seed maturation.

    • Jingpu Song
    • , Xin Xie
    •  & Yuhai Cui

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The evolutionary and domestication history of apricots is poorly understood. Here, the authors provide four apricot high-quality genome assemblies, the genomes of 578 accessions from natural and cultivated populations, and show that Chinese and European apricots constitute two different gene pools, resulting from independent domestication events.

    • Alexis Groppi
    • , Shuo Liu
    •  & Véronique Decroocq

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is currently thought that the thylakoid proteins PGRL1 and PGR5 form a complex to mediate cyclic electron flow (CEF) around photosystem I. Here the authors show that CEF can in fact be mediated by PGR5 alone and that PGRL1 and the homologous PGRL2 modify the process by modulating PGR5 activity and stability.

    • Thilo Rühle
    • , Marcel Dann
    •  & Dario Leister

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Beneficial plant-microbe interactions are common in nature, but direct evidence for the evolution of mutualism is scarce. Here, Li et al. experimentally evolve a rhizospheric bacterium and find that it can evolve into a mutualist on a relatively short timescale.

    • Erqin Li
    • , Ronnie de Jonge
    •  & Alexandre Jousset

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Plant sciences across other nature.com journals