News & Views

A genomic analysis reveals how Kalanchoe succulents, known as the ‘mother of thousands’, reinvent propagation. By losing meristem activity regulators, amplifying developmental genes and opening up chromatin, these plants sprout new plantlets from their leaves, with implications for plant totipotency and crop engineering.

The florigen activation complex drives the pivotal transition from vegetative growth to flowering in response to inductive daylengths. Recent work, which incorporates novel components and reveals the multifunctionality of established members of the complex, now uncovers a multi-layered assembly mechanism and an unexpected spatiotemporal distribution of the complex.

Engineering cassava with a modified potassium (K⁺) channel gene from Arabidopsis thaliana enhances K⁺ transport, photosynthesis and storage root yield, offering a sustainable strategy to boost productivity and resilience in nutrient-poor and drought-prone environments.

The apocarotenoid growth regulator zaxinone binds the Arabidopsis strigolactone receptor DWARF 14 (D14). Acting as a long-lasting antagonist, zaxinone interferes with signalling and induces strigolactone biosynthesis. This discovery broadens the ligand repertoire of D14 and raises new questions about hormone crosstalk and receptor plasticity.

Decades of research in plants has established that the protein complexes that transcribe small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are not targeted to DNA in a sequence-specific manner. Two independent studies uncover the recruitment of the key siRNA-producing protein RNA polymerase IV mediated by transcription factors to specific DNA sequences.

Plants often experience multiple stresses to which they adapt by mounting specific responses. Nitrogen supply allows plants to better recover from drought, and this is linked to inhibition of the SnRK2 kinase, which is shown to destabilize the NLP7 master transcription factor for nitrate signals.

Plants produce a remarkable spectrum of specialized metabolites that shape ecological interactions with other organisms and enable environmental adaptation. Deciphering the biosynthesis and function of these metabolites can unlock fundamental resources for crop optimization and synthetic biology platforms to advance the production of food and plant-derived pharmaceuticals and other bioproducts.

Shahzad et al. show that heritable changes in gene body methylation shape phenotypic diversity in Arabidopsis thaliana, adding an epigenetic layer to the evolutionary mechanisms that plants use to adapt to their environment.

A novel approach combines CRISPR-mediated modifications with robotic automation to transform cross-pollination from labour-intensive handwork into a seamless automated process.

When aridity levels exceed a threshold, dryland vegetation productivity decreases dramatically. A new global study shows that high levels of protection within conservation areas enhance the capacity of drylands to withstand more drying, significantly advancing the aridity threshold. This finding highlights the dilemma of global dryland management, that is, whether we should prioritize protection or continue dryland development.

The juxtaposition effect increases meiotic crossover frequency in heterozygous chromosome regions flanked by homozygous regions. Initially discovered in self-fertilizing Arabidopsis, this mechanism also operates in the outcrossing cereal crop maize.

In plants, de novo synthesis of all three basic amino acids (Arg, His and Lys) occurs entirely in the plastid stroma. Therefore, export of these essential primary metabolites via membrane-intrinsic proteins of the plastid envelope is crucial for plant growth, development and fitness.

Two recent studies in phylogenetically distant plants integrate a new layer of control into the canonical auxin pathway. A deeply conserved degron that affects the stability of repressors regulates transcriptional responses and plant development.

Uncontrolled transposable element (TE) mobility can be deleterious to genome integrity. To protect their genomes, plants have evolved intricate silencing mechanisms that put brakes on these mobile elements. Under stress, however, these silencing mechanisms can be perturbed, putting genomes at risk. A recent study reveals that under heat stress, ROS1 expression is tightly regulated to keep TEs at bay.

A ubiquitous protein kinase phosphorylates and stabilizes a key epigenetic effector in Arabidopsis, potentially contributing to mechanisms in plants for timing the duration of winter.

Bacterial perception by plants is imperative to trigger plant defences and mount immunity against bacterial diseases. Cell surface receptor kinase FLS2 detects the flg22 epitope of bacterial flagella to initiate defence responses. Two new, complementary studies report on the expansion of flg22 recognition to a wider range of bacterial pathogens by selectively engineering FLS2 receptors.

After a long hiatus, a recent paper identifies the molecular basis of Mendel’s remaining three traits and demonstrates that the genes concerned are major contributors to phenotypic variation in pea.

Long-distance signalling helps plants to coordinate responses to environmental stress, but identification of these signals can be technically challenging. A recent study presented a new method for mobile transcription factor identification based on trans-organ gene co-expression, enabling characterization of the shoot-derived transcription factor TGA7 and providing insights into how plants coordinate regulatory processes across different tissues.

Transcription factors are proteins that recognize and bind short, specific DNA sequences and regulate when, where and how genes are expressed in a cell. A recent large-scale study of transcription factor binding across multiple flowering plant species reveals conservation of cell-type-specific regulatory pathways as well as rewiring of ancient regulatory networks for lineage-specific phenotypes, including tolerance to stresses.

Plants regenerate a protective tissue at wound sites. Recent research has identified a multi-layered barrier that is formed through the coordinated processes of epidermalization and programmed cell death at the cut surface of leaves.