The AP2/ERF transcription factor MdDREB2A regulates nitrogen utilisation and sucrose transport under drought stress.

Drought stress is one of the main environmental factors limiting plant growth and development. Plants adapt to changing soil moisture by modifying root architecture, inducing stomatal closure, and inhibiting shoot growth. The AP2/ERF transcription factor DREB2A plays a key role in maintaining plant growth in response to drought stress, but the molecular mechanism underlying this process remains to be elucidated.

Efficient and heritable A-to-K base editing in rice and tomato.

Cytosine and adenosine base editors (CBE and ABE) have been widely used in plants, greatly accelerating gene function research and crop breeding. Current base editors can achieve efficient A-to-G and C-to-T/G/A editing. However, efficient and heritable A-to-Y (A-to-T/C) editing remains to be developed in plants.

Application of multiple sgRNAs boosts efficiency of CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene targeting in Arabidopsis.

Background: Precise gene targeting (GT) is a powerful tool for heritable precision genome engineering, enabling knock-in or replacement of the endogenous sequence via homologous recombination. We recently established a CRISPR/Cas9-mediated approach for heritable GT in Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) and rice and reported that the double-strand breaks (DSBs) frequency of Cas9 influences the GT efficiency. However, the relationship between DSBs and GT at the same locus was not examined.

Identification of major QTLs for drought tolerance in soybean, together with a novel candidate gene, GmUAA6.

Drought tolerance is a complex trait in soybean that is controlled by polygenetic quantitative trait loci (QTLs). In this study, wilting score, days-to-wilting, leaf relative water content, and leaf relative conductivity were used to identify QTLs associated with drought tolerance in recombinant inbred lines derived from a cross between a drought-sensitive variety, Lin, and a drought-tolerant variety, Meng. A total of 33 drought-tolerance QTLs were detected.

Chromosome-scale assembly and gene editing of Solanum americanum genome reveals the basis for thermotolerance and fruit anthocyanin composition.

Solanum americanum serves as a promising source of resistance genes against potato late blight and is considered as a leafy vegetable for complementary food and nutrition. The limited availability of high-quality genome assemblies and gene annotations has hindered the exploration and exploitation of stress-resistance genes in S. americanum.

An endophytic fungus interacts with the defensin-like protein OsCAL1 to regulate cadmium allocation in rice.

Defensin-like proteins are conserved in multicellular organisms and contribute to innate immune responses against fungal pathogens. In rice, defensins play a novel role in regulating cadmium (Cd) efflux from the cytosol. However, whether the antifungal activity of defensins correlates with Cd-efflux function remains unknown.

Walking down the phosphorylation path to root immunity.

Pathogen perception in plant roots is under-explored compared to that in shoots. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Wang et al. characterize the phosphorylation-mediated signaling pathway that positively and negatively regulates plant resistance to bacterial wilt disease upon perception of a metabolite from the soil-borne vascular pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum.

Liquid-liquid phase separation as a major mechanism of plant abiotic stress sensing and responses.

Identification of environmental stress sensors is one of the most important research topics in plant abiotic stress research. Traditional strategies to identify stress sensors or early signaling components based on the cell membrane as a primary site of sensing and calcium signal as a second messenger have had only limited successes. Therefore, the current theoretical framework underlying stress sensing in plants should be reconsidered and additional mechanisms need to be introduced.

Alternaria TeA toxin activates a chloroplast retrograde signaling pathway to facilitate JA-dependent pathogenicity.

The chloroplast is a critical battleground in the arms race between plants and pathogens. Among microbe-secreted mycotoxins, tenuazonic acid (TeA), produced by the genus Alternaria and other phytopathogenic fungi, inhibits photosynthesis, leading to a burst of photosynthetic singlet oxygen (O) that is implicated in damage and chloroplast-to-nucleus retrograde signaling. Despite the significant crop damage caused by Alternaria pathogens, our understanding of the molecular mechanism by which TeA promotes pathogenicity and cognate plant defense responses remains fragmentary.

The m6A reader ECT1 drives mRNA sequestration to dampen salicylic acid-dependent stress responses in Arabidopsis.

N 6-methyladenosine (m6A) is a common epitranscriptional mRNA modification in eukaryotes. Thirteen putative m6A readers, mostly annotated as EVOLUTIONARILY CONSERVED C-TERMINAL REGION (ECT) proteins, have been identified in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), but few have been characterized. Here, we show that the Arabidopsis m6A reader ECT1 modulates salicylic acid (SA)-mediated plant stress responses.

DNA cytosine methylation dynamics and functional roles in horticultural crops.

Methylation of cytosine is a conserved epigenetic modification that maintains the dynamic balance of methylation in plants under the regulation of methyltransferases and demethylases. In recent years, the study of DNA methylation in regulating the growth and development of plants and animals has become a key area of research. This review describes the regulatory mechanisms of DNA cytosine methylation in plants.

Characterization of tryptophan oxidation affecting D1 degradation by FtsH in the photosystem II quality control of chloroplasts.

Photosynthesis is one of the most important reactions for sustaining our environment. Photosystem II (PSII) is the initial site of photosynthetic electron transfer by water oxidation. Light in excess, however, causes the simultaneous production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), leading to photo-oxidative damage in PSII.

DNA methylation-dependent epigenetic regulation of virulence in plants.

Unlabelled: As a conserved epigenetic mark, DNA cytosine methylation, at the 5' position (5-mC), plays important roles in multiple biological processes, including plant immunity. However, the involvement of DNA methylation in the determinants of virulence of phytopathogenic fungi remains elusive. In this study, we profiled the DNA methylation patterns of the phytopathogenic fungus , one of the major causal pathogens of wilt disease that causes great losses in many crops, and explored its contribution in fungal pathogenicity.

H2O2 negatively regulates aluminum resistance via oxidation and degradation of the transcription factor STOP1.

Aluminum (Al) stress triggers the accumulation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in roots. However, whether H2O2 plays a regulatory role in aluminum resistance remains unclear. In this study, we show that H2O2 plays a crucial role in regulation of Al resistance, which is modulated by the mitochondrion-localized pentatricopeptide repeat protein REGULATION OF ALMT1 EXPRESSION 6 (RAE6).

The evolutionary innovation of root suberin lamellae contributed to the rise of seed plants.

Seed plants overtook ferns to become the dominant plant group during the late Carboniferous, a period in which the climate became colder and dryer. However, the specific innovations driving the success of seed plants are not clear. Here we report that the appearance of suberin lamellae (SL) contributed to the rise of seed plants.

Microbial fortification of pharmacological metabolites in medicinal plants.

Medicinal plants are rich in secondary metabolites with beneficial pharmacological effects. The production of plant secondary metabolites is subjected to the influences by environmental factors including the plant-associated microbiome, which is crucial to the host's fitness and survival. As a result, research interests are increasing in exploiting microbial capacities for enhancing plant production of pharmacological metabolites.

Stress-induced endocytosis from chloroplast inner envelope membrane is mediated by CHLOROPLAST VESICULATION but inhibited by GAPC.

Clathrin-mediated vesicular formation and trafficking are responsible for molecular cargo transport and signal transduction among organelles. Our previous study shows that CHLOROPLAST VESICULATION (CV)-containing vesicles (CVVs) are generated from chloroplasts for chloroplast degradation under abiotic stress. Here, we show that CV interacts with the clathrin heavy chain (CHC) and induces vesicle budding toward the cytosol from the chloroplast inner envelope membrane.

Role of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in Regulating Growth, Enhancing Productivity, and Potentially Influencing Ecosystems under Abiotic and Biotic Stresses.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) form symbiotic relationships with the roots of nearly all land-dwelling plants, increasing growth and productivity, especially during abiotic stress. AMF improves plant development by improving nutrient acquisition, such as phosphorus, water, and mineral uptake. AMF improves plant tolerance and resilience to abiotic stressors such as drought, salt, and heavy metal toxicity.

Ca signaling in plant manganese uptake: CPK21/23 kinases phosphorylate and activate manganese transporter NRAMP1.

This brief article highlights the results of Fu et al. (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 119:e2204574119, 2022), who recently found that manganese (Mn) deficiency triggers long-lasting multicellular Ca oscillations in the elongation zone (EZ) of Arabidopsis roots and revealed a Ca-CPK21/23-NRAMP1 axis as an important mechanism for plant tolerance and adaptation to low Mn.