Plant sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photosynthetic formation of manganese (Mn) oxides from dissolved Mn ions was proposed to occur in ancestral photosystems before oxygenic photosynthesis evolved. Here, the authors provide evidence for this hypothesis by showing that photosystem II devoid of the Mn cluster oxidises Mn ions leading to formation of Mn-oxide nanoparticles.

    • Petko Chernev
    • , Sophie Fischer
    •  & Holger Dau

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sorghum is a source of lignocellulosic biomass for the production of renewable fuels. Here the authors characterise the sorghum secondary cell wall using multi-dimensional magic angle spinning solid-state NMR and present a model dominated by interactions between three-fold screw xylan and amorphous cellulose.

    • Yu Gao
    • , Andrew S. Lipton
    •  & Jenny C. Mortimer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The green component of the solar spectrum can efficiently drive natural photosynthesis, but the process has been little investigated due to the complexity of the excited states involved. Here the authors utilize polarization-dependent two-dimensional electronic-vibrational spectroscopy to define the origin and dynamics of these states in light-harvesting complex II.

    • Eric A. Arsenault
    • , Yusuke Yoneda
    •  & Graham R. Fleming

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of techniques capable of orchestrating the assembly of living cells into multicellular ensembles with synergistic and function is challenge. Here, the authors construct algal or algal/bacterial cells-based core shell-like structure based on aqueous two-phase system for synergic photosynthetic H2 production.

    • Zhijun Xu
    • , Shengliang Wang
    •  & Stephen Mann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The nuclear lamina regulates chromatin organization and gene positioning. Here the authors show that CROWDED NUCLEI proteins contribute to the meshwork lamina structure in Arabidopsis nuclei and regulate copper tolerance by promoting lamina association and expression of copper response genes.

    • Yuki Sakamoto
    • , Mayuko Sato
    •  & Sachihiro Matsunaga

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Anthraquinones are aromatic polyketides and have been used for treating various diseases, but the biosynthetic pathway is unclear. Here, the authors assemble the genome of an anthraquinone-producing medicinal plant Senna tora and show the evidences that CHS-like genes may be involved in anthraquinone biosynthesis.

    • Sang-Ho Kang
    • , Ramesh Prasad Pandey
    •  & Jae Kyung Sohng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dioecy has evolved independently from hermaphroditic ancestors in different plant lineages. Here, the authors assemble Populus deltoides male and female genomes, and show the putative roles of a femaleness gene and a maleness gene in sex determination, which suggests independent evolution in different poplar species.

    • Liangjiao Xue
    • , Huaitong Wu
    •  & Tongming Yin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fruit firmness is an important target for breeders and a key determinant of shelf life for many fruits. Here the authors show that mutating tomato FIS1, a GA2-oxidase, increases the concentration of bioactive gibberellins, enhances cutin and wax biosynthesis and increases fruit firmness.

    • Ren Li
    • , Shuai Sun
    •  & Xia Cui

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Saponins such as glycyrrhizin, a natural sweetener found in licorice root, are a class of triterpenoids synthesized that are characterized by a glucoronic acid moiety at the C-3 position. Here the authors show that saponin glucuronosylation is catalyzed by cellulose-synthase like enzymes and reconstitute glycyrrhizin synthesisin yeast.

    • Soo Yeon Chung
    • , Hikaru Seki
    •  & Toshiya Muranaka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solanum pimpinellifolium (SP) is the progenitor of cultivated tomato and an important germplasm. Here, the authors assemble SP genome, identify structural variants (SVs) by comparing with modern cultivar, reveal SVs associated with important breeding traits, and detect SVs harboring master regulators of fruit quality traits.

    • Xin Wang
    • , Lei Gao
    •  & Zhangjun Fei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The putative causal agent of citrus greening Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas) cannot be cultured, which hampers finding new therapies to control this devastating disease. Here, the authors show that hairy roots support CLas propagation and enable high throughput antimicrobial screening.

    • Sonia Irigoyen
    • , Manikandan Ramasamy
    •  & Kranthi K. Mandadi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The factors that determine whether pathogens co-occur in a host are poorly understood, especially for plant viruses. Here the authors conduct field experiments with the plant Plantago lanceolata and its viruses, showing that viral co-occurrences are driven predominantly by environmental context and host genotype rather than viral interactions.

    • Suvi Sallinen
    • , Anna Norberg
    •  & Anna-Liisa Laine

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The molecular basis for the unique taste and aroma of tea cultivars is largely unknown, but is critical for breeding new cultivars. Here the authors use transcriptomics and metabolomics to study the relationship among phylogenetic groups and specialized metabolites from 136 tea accessions in China.

    • Xiaomin Yu
    • , Jiajing Xiao
    •  & Renyi Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the mechanism of high-temperature tolerance will help to breed crops adaptive to warming climate. Here, the authors show SLG1, a cytosolic tRNA 2-thiolation protein 2 encoding gene, is differentiated between the two Asian cultivated rice subspecies and confers high temperature tolerance of indica rice.

    • Yufang Xu
    • , Li Zhang
    •  & Shanguo Yao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The perennial grass Miscanthus is a promising biomass crop. Here, via genomics and transcriptomics, the authors reveal its allotetraploid origin, characterize gene expression associated with rhizome development and nutrient recycling, and describe the hybrid origin of the triploid M. x giganteus.

    • Therese Mitros
    • , Adam M. Session
    •  & Daniel S. Rokhsar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How plant biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) form and evolve remains unclear. Here, via examining available genomes within and between Arabidopsis species, the authors show that the thalianol BGC has evolved recently and is still dynamically evolving through involvement of auxiliary genes and chromosomal inversions.

    • Zhenhua Liu
    • , Jitender Cheema
    •  & Anne Osbourn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Very little is known about how vitreous endosperm in the mature maize kernel is created. Here, via map-based cloning, the authors find that mutation of a β-carotene hydroxylase 3 encoding gene Ven1 affects carotenoids and lipids composition, which consequently influences amyloplast envelope integrity.

    • Haihai Wang
    • , Yongcai Huang
    •  & Yongrui Wu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The meiotic transmissibility and progeny phenotypic influence of graft-mediated epigenetic changes remain unclear. Here, the authors use the msh1 mutant in the rootstock to trigger heritable enhanced growth vigor in Arabidopsis and tomato, and show it is associated with the RNA-directed DNA methylation pathway.

    • Hardik Kundariya
    • , Xiaodong Yang
    •  & Sally A. Mackenzie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The secondary structure of miRNA precursor sequences is known to affect processing by DICER-like proteins. Here Rojas et al. show that additional sequence features also play a regulatory role in plants with nucleotide identity at unpaired positions substantially impacting processing efficiency.

    • Arantxa M. L. Rojas
    • , Salvador I. Drusin
    •  & Javier F. Palatnik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many models assume a universal carbon use efficiency across forest biomes, in contrast to assumptions of other process-based models. Here the authors analyse forest production efficiency across a wide range of climates to show a positive relationship with annual temperature and precipitation, indicating that ecosystem models are overestimating forest carbon losses under warming.

    • A. Collalti
    • , A. Ibrom
    •  & I. C. Prentice

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Parasitic plants such as Cuscuta penetrate the shoots of susceptible hosts to obtain sugars, solutes and water. Here the authors show that resistant varieties of tomato can trigger an immune response against Cuscuta by perceiving a small glycine rich protein produced by the parasite.

    • Volker Hegenauer
    • , Peter Slaby
    •  & Markus Albert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Replacement of local crops with alternative varieties adapted to future conditions may improve food security under climate change. Here the authors apply landscape genomics and ensemble climate modelling to pearl millet in West Africa, supporting the potential of transfrontier assisted seed exchange.

    • Bénédicte Rhoné
    • , Dimitri Defrance
    •  & Yves Vigouroux

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cyanobacterial photosystem I has a highly conserved core antenna consisting of eleven subunits and more than 90 chlorophylls. Here via CryoEM and spectroscopy, the authors determine the location of a red-shifted low-energy chlorophyll that allows harvesting of longer wavelengths of light.

    • Hila Toporik
    • , Anton Khmelnitskiy
    •  & Yuval Mazor

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Azaleas are one of the most diverse ornamental plants and have cultural and economic importance. Here, the authors report a chromosome-scale genome assembly for the primary ancestor of the azalea cultivar Rhododendro simsi and identify transcription factors that may function in flower coloration at different stages.

    • Fu-Sheng Yang
    • , Shuai Nie
    •  & Jian-Feng Mao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The molecular connection between nitrogen utilization efficiency (NUE) and biomass production is unclear. Here, the authors show that differences in NUE and cellulose biogenesis between rice indica and japonica subspecies can be explained by variation at the MYB61 locus, which is regulated by the NUE regulator GRF4.

    • Yihong Gao
    • , Zuopeng Xu
    •  & Yihua Zhou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phased small interfering RNA (phasiRNAs) are abundantly expressed in the anthers of grasses. Here, the authors profile 21-nt and 24-nt phasiRNA expression at different stages of meiocyte development in rice and provide evidence that 21-nt phasiRNAs direct cleavage of hundreds of target mRNAs.

    • Pengfei Jiang
    • , Bi Lian
    •  & Yijun Qi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In legumes, shoot-derived signals regulate rhizobial symbiosis to balance the benefits of N2 fixation with the energy costs of nodule production. Here Okuma et al. show that Lotus miR2111 is produced in the leaves from the MIR2111-5 locus and is a graft-transmissable signal that enhances nodulation in the roots.

    • Nao Okuma
    • , Takashi Soyano
    •  & Masayoshi Kawaguchi

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Biofortification is an effective means to reduce micronutrient malnutrition. Here, the authors review recent advances in biofortification and propose stacking multiple micronutrient traits into high-yielding varieties through the combination of conventional breeding and genetic engineering approaches.

    • Dominique Van Der Straeten
    • , Navreet K. Bhullar
    •  & Howarth Bouis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrons enter the mitochondrial respiratory chain via complex I. Here, the authors report high-resolution structures of mature plant complex I and one of its assembly intermediates, highlighting plant-specific features including an ancestral carbonic anhydrase domain.

    • Heddy Soufari
    • , Camila Parrot
    •  & Yaser Hashem

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Grasses have diverse inflorescence morphologies, but the underlying genetic mechanisms are unclear. Here, the authors report a TCP transcription factor COM1 affects cell growth through regulation of cell wall properties and promotes branch formation in non-Triticeae grasses but branch inhibition in barley (Triticeae).

    • Naser Poursarebani
    • , Corinna Trautewig
    •  & Thorsten Schnurbusch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The flowering regulators TFL1 and FT act antagonistically to synchronize reproductive transition in flowering plants. Here Zhu et al. show that TFL1 is recruited by the bZIP transcription factor FD to thousands of target loci and reveal that FT competes with TFL1 for chromatin bound-FD at shared targets including LFY, upregulation of which by FT promotes floral fate.

    • Yang Zhu
    • , Samantha Klasfeld
    •  & Doris Wagner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Transcriptional factors (TFs) bind in a combinatorial fashion to specify the on-and-off states of genes in a complex and redundant regulatory network. Here, the authors construct the transcription regulatory network in maize leaf using 104 TFs ChIP-seq data and train machine learning models to predict TF binding and colocalization.

    • Xiaoyu Tu
    • , María Katherine Mejía-Guerra
    •  & Silin Zhong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mechanism of high altitude adaptation of wheat remains unknown. Here, the authors assemble the draft genome of a Tibetan semi-wild wheat accession and resequence 245 wheat accessions to reveal that Tibetan semi-wild wheat has been de-domesticated from local landraces to adapt to high altitude.

    • Weilong Guo
    • , Mingming Xin
    •  & Qixin Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Diatoms are marine algae with an important role in global photosynthetic carbon fixation. Here, the authors present the 2.38 Å cryo-EM structure of photosystem I (PSI) in complex with its 24 fucoxanthin chlorophyll a/c-binding (FCPI) antenna proteins from the diatom Chaetoceros gracilis, which provides mechanistic insights into light-energy harvesting, transfer and quenching of the PSI-FCPI supercomplex.

    • Caizhe Xu
    • , Xiong Pi
    •  & Jian-Ren Shen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plants with reduced amounts of lignin typically suffer from dwarfed growth, which offsets their gain in fermentable sugar yield. Here, the authors show that genome-edited poplar lines with a null and a haploinsufficient allele of CINNAMOYL-COA REDUCTASE2 (CCR2) can be obtained that have a reduced lignin level and normal growth.

    • Barbara De Meester
    • , Barbara Madariaga Calderón
    •  & Wout Boerjan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Genetic variations present in landraces are critical for crop genetic improvement. Here, the authors map haplotype-trait associations in ~1000 doubled haploid lines derived from three European maize landraces and identify beneficial haplotypes for quantitative traits that are not present in breeding lines.

    • Manfred Mayer
    • , Armin C. Hölker
    •  & Chris-Carolin Schön

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Self-incompatibility responses in Brassica are induced by haplotype-specific interactions between the pistil-expressed SRK receptor and pollen-expressed SP11 ligand. Here, via crystal structures and molecular dynamic simulations, the authors provide a model to explain why binding of cognate partners is favoured and how haplotypes can be distinguished.

    • Kohji Murase
    • , Yoshitaka Moriwaki
    •  & Seiji Takayama

  • Article
    | Open Access

    MAPK signaling suppresses autoimmunity mediated by the SUMM2 receptor in Arabidopsis. Here Huang et al. show that a trimeric complex consisting of the GPI anchored protein LLG1, and the two receptor-like proteins LET1 and LET2, promotes activation of SUMM2 according to MAPK signaling status.

    • Yanyan Huang
    • , Chuanchun Yin
    •  & Ping He

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Satellites provide clear evidence of greening trends in the Arctic, but high-resolution pan-Arctic quantification of these trends is lacking. Here the authors analyse high-resolution Landsat data to show widespread greening in the Arctic, and find that greening trends are linked to summer warming overall but not always locally.

    • Logan T. Berner
    • , Richard Massey
    •  & Scott J. Goetz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cellulose is synthesized as microfibrils of β-1,4-linked glucan chains arranged in a crystalline lattice. Here Ye et al. use grazing incidence wide angle X-ray scattering to show that cellulose crystals are preferentially orientated parallel to the plant cell wall, rather than as twisting microfibrils as previously hypothesized.

    • Dan Ye
    • , Sintu Rongpipi
    •  & Enrique D. Gomez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hemicelluloses are an essential constituent of plant cell walls, but the individual biomechanical roles remain elusive. Here the authors report on the interaction of wood hemicellulose with bacterial cellulose during deposition and explore the resultant fibrillar architecture and mechanical properties.

    • Jennie Berglund
    • , Deirdre Mikkelsen
    •  & Francisco Vilaplana

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