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Marks et al. explore the repeated evolution of desiccation tolerance in grasses. Their analysis of diverse resurrection grasses reveals significant genetic convergence and parallel evolution, suggesting a shared foundation for adapting to extreme drought.

Analysis of the bracteatus pineapple genome provides insight into fiber production, color formation, sugar accumulation and fruit maturation. Resequencing of 89 Ananas genomes supports the coexistence of sexual recombination and a ‘one-step operation’ during domestication.

Genome assemblies for the SunUp transgenic papaya and its progenitor Sunset identify three transgene-insertions in SunUp. Resequencing of 86 papaya genomes highlights the impacts of breeding and geographic origin.

Resurrection plants can survive extreme drying during periods of prolonged drought stress, maintaining a quiescent state for months to years until the return of water. Analysis of the genome and transcriptome of the resurrection plant Xerophyta viscosa links the evolution of desiccation tolerance to rewired pre-existing seed pathways.

Ray Ming, Robert Paull, Qingyi Yu and colleagues report the genome sequences of two cultivated pineapple varieties and one wild pineapple relative. Their analysis supports the use of the pineapple as a reference genome for monocot comparative genomics and provides insight into the evolution of crassulacean acid metabolism photosynthesis.

Teff is an indigenous cereal critical to food security in the Horn of Africa. Here, the authors report an improved genome assembly and observe the surprisingly low levels of large-scale structural rearrangement, homoeologous exchanges, or bias gene loss after the formation of this tetraploid species.

Spectroscopic evidence for tilting of smooth muscle, but not skeletal muscle, myosin heads when ADP dissociates suggests mechanisms for the adaptations of these muscle types for their specialized roles.

Analyses of plant genomes sequenced in the past 20 years, the species taxonomic distribution and national participation reveal that genome quality has increased but substantial taxonomic gaps exist, and that the field has been dominated by the Global North.

Chromosome-scale assembly for the cultivated octoploid strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) uncovers the origin and evolutionary processes that shaped this complex allopolyploid, providing a useful resource for genome-wide analyses and molecular breeding.

Sequencing of haploid sugarcane, Saccharum spontaneum, allows assembly of a prototypical version of the sugarcane chromosome set. This new reference genome will serve as a resource to accelerate sugarcane improvement.

Selaginella lepidophylla is a clubmoss with extreme desiccation tolerance. Here, the authors assemble its highly heterozygotic haplotypes and examine gene expression changes during desiccation, which shed light on the mechanisms for maintaining a small genome size and adaptation to extreme drying.

Oropetium thomaeum is a resurrection plant that can survive extreme water stress through desiccation to complete dryness, providing a model for drought tolerance; here, whole-genome sequencing and assembly of the Oropetium genome using single-molecule real-time sequencing is reported.

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.

Early Permian sphenacodontid synapsids were the first terrestrial large-bodied apex predators. Here, Brink and Reisz show that sphenacodontids had a diverse dentition associated with the evolution of changes in feeding style at the onset of the first well established, complex terrestrial ecosystems.

The genome of the biofuel crop switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) reveals climate–gene–biomass associations that underlie adaptation in nature and will facilitate improvements of the yield of this crop for bioenergy production.