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Auxin can promote or inhibit hypocotyl elongation. This biphasic effect has puzzled generations of plant biologists. Wang et al. shows that the decreasing apoplastic pH, stimulated by auxin, underlies the change in hypocotyl growth response.

Here it is shown that the handedness of mirror-image flowers in Cyanella alba is not genetically determined but linked to the spiral arrangement of leaves and asymmetric auxin activity. This reveals a non-genetic mechanism for floral asymmetry.

Wang and colleagues show that, in Arabidopsis thaliana, brassinosteroid and light-dependent transcription factors are required for giberellin effects on hypocotyl elongation, by modulating transcription of giberellin-induced genes involved in cell wall synthesis and photosynthesis. Conversely, giberellin relieves the brassinosteroid component BZR1 from inhibition by DELLA proteins.

The brassinosteroid (BR) signalling pathway results in the activation of BZR transcription factors to control plant development. The complete pathway is established here, by showing that BR induces the BSU1 phosphatase-dependent inactivation of the GSK3-like kinase BIN2, thereby leading to accumulation of unphosphorylated BZR factors in the nucleus.

The haplotype-resolved genome in Amborella trichopoda addresses outstanding questions on the structure and gene content of the recently evolved ZW sex chromosomes.

Plants sense bacterial invaders through the binding of non-self molecular patterns and membrane receptors. Natural variation in tomato is used to identify a new receptor for cold-shock protein that can be used to enhance immunity in other species.

The behavior of exosomes in vivo is not completely elucidated. Here the authors develop a genetically engineered mouse model (ExoBow) to trace the distribution of exosomes, showing local and inter-organ communication networks, either specific or shared between healthy pancreas and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

How TGF-β family members regulate sex determination in teleost fish is unclear. Here they use turquoise killifish to show that Gdf6Y, in addition to its role in skeletal development, specifies the male sex in somatic supporting cells by autocrine signaling.

Saur and colleagues perform a high-throughput combinatorial drug screen and identify a synergistic combination between nintedanib and trametinib that sensitizes mesenchymal PDAC to immune checkpoint blockade.

The LHCb experiment at CERN has observed significant asymmetries between the decay rates of the beauty baryon and its CP-conjugated antibaryon, thus demonstrating CP violation in baryon decays.

Rph7 is a previously mapped barley leaf rust resistance locus, but the causal resistance gene remains unclear. Here, combining a fine mapping approach with RNA-Seq based analysis, the authors clone Rph7 and show it encodes putative NAC transcription factor containing a C-terminal BED domain.

Currently, few mouse models exist to recapitulate human melanomagenesis. Here, the authors establish a c-Kit-CreER-driven model to target melanocyte stem cells (McSCs) and show that oncogenic McSCs give rise to epidermal melanoma that invade into the dermis, similar to human melanoma.

Rmg8 and Rmg7, genes for resistance to wheat blast, proved to be a homoeologue and an allele of Pm4, a gene for resistance to powdery mildew. Their functional homologues were also found in Aegilops spp., suggesting that their origin dates back to the time before differentiation of Triticum and Aegilops.

Branched organoids embedded in collagen gels can recapitulate the phenotypic landscape and pronounced molecular and morphological heterogeneity of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Plants are able to induce defense responses following recognition of certain pathogen derived molecules at the cell surface. Here, Manosalvaet al. show that plants respond to ascarosides, a conserved class of nematode pheromones, providing the first example of plant recognition of an animal-derived signalling molecule.

The approximately 5-Gb tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) genome assembly provides a resource for analysing amniote evolution, and highlights the imperative for meaningful cultural engagement with Indigenous communities in genome-sequencing endeavours.

Brassica oleracea is plant species comprising economically important vegetable crops. Here, the authors report the draft genome sequence of B. oleracea and, through a comparative analysis with the closely related B. rapa, reveal insights into Brassicaevolution and divergence of interspecific genomes and intraspecific subgenomes.

In tomato, the transcription factor DOF9 regulates inflorescence termination and flower development, which determines fruit yield. DOF9 is connected to the auxin signalling pathway through ARF5.

Brassica oleracea is a single species that includes diverse crops such as cabbage, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Here, the authors identify genes not captured in existing B. oleraceareference genomes by the assembly of a pangenome and show variations in gene content that may be related to important agronomic traits

“In-depth cell-selective proteomics and secretomics has remained challenging. Here, the authors devise an optimised azidonorleucine labelling, mass spectrometry method and detect over 10,000 proteins in a pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma model.

The genome sequence of segmental allotetraploid peanut suggests that diversity generated by genetic deletions and homeologous recombination helped to favor the domestication of Arachis hypogaea over its diploid relatives.

Sorghum is a drought-resistant food and feed cereal crop used by over half a billion of the world’s poorest people. Here the authors present high-coverage resequencing genome data of 44 sorghum lines of varying geographic and taxonomic origin, which include a number of sorghum wild relatives.

Adding to the recent debate on the role of epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) in cancer cell invasion and metastasis, Brabletz and colleagues show that the EMT-inducing transcription factor Zeb1 drives pancreatic tumorigenesis and metastasis.

The plant hormone auxin affects many aspects of root development, including lateral root branching. A high-throughput screen in Arabidopsis thaliana has led to the identification of naxillin, a non-auxin chemical probe that enhances lateral root branching and has revealed an important role of the root cap in regulating this process.

SNAIL promotes tumour metastasis through inducing epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). Here the authors report that SNAIL bypasses senescence and regulates cell cycle progression to promote pancreatic carcinogenesis and this is independent of EMT induction.

Water molecules in Europa’s icy surface are split into hydrogen and oxygen by charged particle bombardment. NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew near Europa and constrained the production of oxygen in Europa’s surface ice, thus providing only a narrow range to support habitability in its subsurface ocean.