Phosphorous (P) and iron (Fe) are two essential nutrients for plant growth and development and are highly abundant elements in the earth's crust but often display low availability to plants. Due to the ability to form insoluble complexes, the antagonistic interaction between P and Fe nutrition in plants has been noticed for decades. However, the underlying molecular mechanism modulating the signaling

Plant hormone cytokinin signals through histidine-aspartic acid (H-D) phosphorelay to regulate plant growth and development. Whilst it’s well-known that the phosphorelay involves histidine kinases, histidine phosphotransfer proteins (HPs) and responsive regulators (RRs), how this process is regulated by external components remains unknown. Here we demonstrate that PPKL1 (Protein Phosphatase with Kelch-Like

Abscisic acid (ABA) is an important carotenoid-derived phytohormone that plays essential roles in plant response to biotic and abiotic stresses as well as in various physiological and developmental processes. In Arabidopsis, ABA biosynthesis starts with the epoxidation of zeaxanthin by the ABA DEFICIENT 1 (ABA1) enzyme, leading to epoxycarotenoids, e.g., violaxanthin. The oxidative cleavage of 9-cis-epoxycarotenoids

Leaf senescence is an important developmental process in plants’ life cycle and has a significant impact on agriculture. As an adaptive mechanism, when facing harsh environmental conditions, monocarpic plants often initiate leaf senescence early to ensure a complete life cycle. Upon initiation, the senescence process is fine-tuned through the coordination of both positive and negative regulators. Here

Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth and development, and plays vital roles for crop yield. Assimilation of nitrogen is thus fine-tuned in response to heterogeneous environments. However, the regulatory mechanism underlying this essential process remains largely unknown. Here we report that a zinc finger transcription factor DROUGHT AND SALT TOLERANCE (DST) controls nitrate assimilation

The interaction between plant and soil environment affects plant survival and evolution. In modern agriculture, frequent application of herbicide may induce changes in plants and results in unfavorable consequences. Here we report the characterization of a mutant called rtp1 with strong resistance to the widely used herbicides paraquat and diquat. This mutant is semi-dominant, and the mutant gene encodes

Volatile organic compounds play essential roles in plant-environment interactions as well as determining the fragrance of plants. Although gas chromatography-mass spectrometry based untargeted metabolomics is commonly used to assess plant volatiles, it suffers from high spectral convolution, low detection sensitivity, limited annotated metabolites and relatively poor reproducibility. Herein, we report

Paraquat is one of the most widely used non-selective herbicides and has elicited the emergence of paraquat resistant weeds. However, the molecular mechanisms of paraquat resistance are not completely understood. Here we report an Arabidopsis gain-of-function mutant pqt15-D with significantly enhanced resistance to paraquat and the corresponding PQT15 encoding the MATE transporter DTX6. A point mutation

Concerns over widespread use of insecticides and heightened insect pest virulence under climate change continue to fuel the need for environmentally safe and sustainable control strategies. However, to develop such strategies, a better understanding of the molecular basis of plant-pest interactions is still needed. Despite decades of research investigating plant-insect interactions, few examples exist

Phosphorus (P) is an indispensable macronutrient required for plant growth and development. Natural phosphate (Pi) reserves are finite, and a better understanding of Pi utilization by crops is therefore vital for worldwide food security. Ammonium has long been known to enhance Pi acquisition efficiency in agriculture; however, the molecular mechanisms coordinating Pi nutrition and ammonium remains

Interpreting the functional impacts of genetic variants (GVs) is an important challenge for functional genomic studies in crops and next-generation breeding. Previous studies in rice (Oryza sativa) have focused mainly on the identification of GVs, whereas systematic functional annotation of GVs has not yet been performed. Here, we present a functional impact map of GVs in rice. We curated haplotype

During anther development, the process from microspore to mature pollen is under the protection from tetrad wall to pollen wall. Mutations of the genes involved in this wall transition often lead to microspore rupture and male sterility, some of which are thermo/photoperiod-sensitive genic male sterile (P/TGMS) lines, such as the reversible male sterile (rvms) mutant. Previous investigation shows slow

Poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation (PARylation) is a post-translational modification reversibly catalyzed by poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs) and poly(ADP-ribose) glycohydrolases (PARGs) and plays a key role in multiple cellular processes. The molecular mechanisms by which PARylation regulates innate immunity remain largely unknown. Here we show that Arabidopsis UBC13A and UBC13B, the major drivers of lysine

Plants have developed sophisticated strategies to coordinate growth and immunity, but our understanding of the underlying mechanism remains limited. Here we identified a novel molecular module that regulates plant growth and defense in both compatible and incompatible infections. This module consisted of BZR1, a key transcription factor in brassinosteroid (BR) signaling, and EDS1, an essential positive

The male sterility (MS) line is a prerequisite for self-pollinating rice to efficiently produce hybrid seeds. MS line breeding is pivotal for hybrid rice improvement. Understanding the historical breeding trajectory will be helpful to improve hybrid rice breeding strategy. Maternally inherited cytoplasm is an appropriate tool for phylogenetic reconstruction and pedigree tracing in rice hybrids. In

Post-polyploid diploidization associated with descending dysploidy and interspecific introgression drives plant genome evolution by unclear mechanisms. Raphanus is an economically and ecologically important Brassiceae genus and model system for studying post-polyploidization genome evolution and introgression. Here, we have sequenced and de novo assembled eleven genomes covering most of the typical

Nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) genes comprise the largest family of plant disease resistance genes. Angiosperm NLR genes are phylogenetically divided into the TNL, CNL, and RNL subclasses. NLR copy numbers and subclass composition vary tremendously across angiosperm genomes. However, the evolutionary associations between genomic NLR content and ecological adaptation, or between NLR content

The effects of brassinosteroid signaling on shoot and root development have been characterized in great detail but did not identify a simple consistent positive or negative impact on a basic cellular parameter. Here we combined digital 3D single-cell shape analysis and single-cell mRNA sequencing to characterize root meristems and mature root segments of brassinosteroid-blind mutants and wild type

The superfamily of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes plays key roles in plant evolution and metabolic diversification. This review provides a status on the CYP landscape within green algae and land plants. The 11 conserved CYP clans known from vascular plants are all present in green algae and several green algae-specific clans are recognized. Clan 71, 72, and 85 remain the largest CYP clans and include

Postembryonic organogenesis is critical for plant development. Underground, lateral roots (LRs) form the bulk of mature root systems, yet the ontogeny of the LR primordium (LRP) is not clear. In this study, we performed the single-cell RNA sequencing through the first four stages of LR formation in Arabidopsis. Our analysis led to a model in which a single group of precursor cells, with a cell identity

Plant metabolites are dynamically modified and distributed under environmental changes. However, it is poorly understood how metabolites change functions in plant stress responses. Maintaining ion homeostasis under salt stress requires coordinately activating two type central regulators: PM H+-ATPase and Na+/H+ antiporter. Here, we used a bioassay-guided isolation approach to identify endogenous small

Plant pathogenic bacteria deliver effectors into plant cells to suppress immunity and promote pathogen survival; however, these effectors can be recognised by plant disease resistance (R) proteins to activate innate immunity. The bacterial acetyltransferase effectors HopZ5 and AvrBsT trigger immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana genotypes lacking SUPPRESSOR OF AVRBST-ELICITED RESISTANCE 1 (SOBER1). Using

Eukaryotic organisms are equipped with quality-control mechanisms that survey protein folding in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and remove non-native proteins by ER-associated degradation (ERAD). Recent research has shown that cytokinin-degrading CKX proteins are subjected to ERAD during plant development. The mechanisms of plant ERAD, including the export of substrate proteins from the ER, are not

An important question in biology is how organisms can associate with different microbes that pose no threat (commensals), pose a severe threat (pathogens) and those that are beneficial (symbionts). The root nodule symbiosis serves as important model system to address such questions in the context of plant-microbe interactions. It is now generally accepted that rhizobia have the abilities to actively

Leaf senescence, the final stage of leaf development, is influenced by numerous internal and environmental signals. So far, how biotic stresses such as pathogen infection regulate leaf senescence is unclear. Here, we found that the premature leaf senescence caused by a soil-borne vascular fungus Verticillium dahliae in Arabidopsis was impaired by the mutation of a protein elicitor from V. dahliae 1

Soybean mosaic virus (SMV) causes severe yield losses and seed quality reduction in soybean (Glycine max) production worldwide. Rsc4 from cultivar Dabaima is a dominant genetic locus for SMV resistance, and its mapping interval contains three Nucleotide-binding domain Leucine-rich Repeat containing (NLR) candidates (Rsc4-1, Rsc4-2, and Rsc4-3). The NLR-type resistant proteins were considered as important

Genome editing provides novel strategies for improving plant traits, but relies on current genetic transformation and plant regeneration procedures, which can be inefficient. We have engineered a barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV)-based sgRNA delivery vector (BSMV-sg) that is effective in performing heritable genome editing in Cas9-transgenic wheat plants. Mutated progenies were present in the next

In plants, phosphate (Pi) homeostasis is regulated by the interaction of PHR transcription factors with stand-alone SPX proteins, which act as sensors for inositol pyrophosphates. Here, we combined different methods to obtain a comprehensive picture of how inositol (pyro)phosphate metabolism is regulated by Pi and dependent on the inositol phosphate kinase ITPK1. We found that inositol pyrophosphates

Loss of the awn in some cereals including sorghum is a key transition during cereal domestication or improvement that has facilitated grain harvest and storage. The genetic basis for the loss of awn in sorghum during domestication or improvement remains unknown. Here, we identified a transcription factor gene awn1 encoding an ALOG domain, which is responsible for awn loss during sorghum domestication

Natural alleles controlling multiple disease resistances (MDR) are valuable for crop breeding. However, only one MDR gene have been cloned in maize, and molecular mechanisms of MDR are not clear. By map-based cloning, we have cloned a teosinte-derived allele of a resistance gene, Mexicana lesion mimic 1 (ZmMM1), which has a lesion mimic phenotype and confers resistance to northern leaf blight (NLB)

Phloem-feeding insects cause massive losses in agriculture and horticulture. Host plant-mediated resistance to phloem-feeding insects is often mediated by changes in phloem composition to deter insect settling, feeding and viability. Here, we describe a mechanism of resistance to the phloem-feeding brown planthopper (BPH) associated with the fortified sclerenchyma tissue, which is just beneath the

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) regulate the activity of SNF1-RELATED PROTEIN KINASE2.6 (SnRK2.6), including phosphorylation and persulfidation. Here, we report how persulfidations and phosphorylations of SnRK2.6 influence each other. The persulfidation of cysteine C131/C137 altered SnRK2.6 structure, resulted in serine S175 residue more close to aspartic acid D140, who belong to ATP-γ-phosphate

Global warming imposes a major threat to plant growth and crop production. In some plants including Arabidopsis thaliana, elevated temperatures induce a series of morphological and developmental adjustments, termed thermomorphogenesis to facilitate plant cooling under high-temperature conditions. Plant thermal response is suppressed by histone variant H2A.Z. At warm temperatures, H2A.Z is evicted from

Disease-resistance (R) gene cloning in wheat (Triticum aestivum) has been accelerated by the recent surge of genomic resources, facilitated by advances in sequencing technologies and bioinformatics. However, with the challenges of population growth and climate change, it is vital not only to clone and functionally characterize a few handfuls of R genes, but also to do so at a scale that would facilitate

Reproductive transition of grasses is characterized by switching the pattern of lateral branches, featuring the suppression of outgrowth of the subtending leaves (bracts) and rapid formation of higher-order branches in the inflorescence (panicle). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying such changes remain largely unknown. Here, we show that bract suppression is required for the reproductive branching

Fruit set is inhibited by adverse temperatures, with consequences on yield. We isolated a tomato mutant producing fruits under non-permissive hot temperatures and identified the causal gene as SlHB15A, belonging to class III homeodomain leucine-zipper transcription factors. SlHB15A loss-of-function mutants display aberrant ovule development that mimics transcriptional changes occurring in fertilized

Taxus, commonly known as yew, is a well-known gymnosperm with great ornamental and medicinal value. In this study, by assembling a chromosome-level genome of the Himalayan yew (Taxus wallichiana) with 10.9 Gb in 12 chromosomes, we revealed that tandem duplication acts as the driving force of gene family evolution in the yew genome, resulting in the main genes for paclitaxel biosynthesis, i.e. those

Formation of lateral roots shapes the architecture of the root systems and contribute to their fitness. In Arabidopsis, lateral roots follow a well described sequence of events that lead to the emergence of a new root complete with its own meristem and a set of tissue and cell types very similar to the ones found in the primary root. How is the diversity of cell types established? Serrano-Ron et al

G-protein signaling and ubiquitin-dependent degradation are both involved in grain development in rice, but how these pathways are coordinated in regulating this process is unknown. Here, we show that Chang Li Geng 1 (CLG1), which encodes an E3 ligase, regulates grain size by targeting the Gγ protein GS3, a negative regulator of grain length, for degradation. CLG1 overexpression led to increased grain

Paulownias are among the fastest growing trees in the world, but often suffer tremendous loss of wood production due to infection by Paulownia witches' broom (PaWB) phytoplasmas. Here, we have sequenced and assembled a high-quality nuclear genome of Paulownia fortunei, a commonly cultivated paulownia species. The assembled genome of P. fortunei, 511.6 Mb in size, with 93.2% of the sequences being anchored

Grain size is one of the most import factors of controlling rice yield, as it is associated with grain weight (GW). To date, several rice genes that regulate grain size have been isolated; however, the regulatory mechanism underlying GW control is not fully understood. Herein, a quantitative trait locus qGL5 for grain length (GL) and GW was identified in recombinant inbred lines of 9311 and Nipponbare