Reviews & Analysis

The polarized growth of pollen tube cells requires actin filament attachment and apical plasma membrane expansion to be coordinated. Data now show that the class VIII myosin ATM2 acts as an adaptor that links actin filaments with the plasma membrane and promotes the formation of the regulatory phospholipid phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate, and thereby reduces actin dynamics and stabilizes actin–membrane contacts.

Editing a gene’s coding or regulatory sequence alone changes its function or expression, but often not enough to improve a trait. By pairing structure-guided protein design with cis-regulatory tuning at the endogenous 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase locus, we built ‘dual-layer’ alleles that improved herbicide tolerance in rice and wheat, providing a way to engineer dosage-sensitive traits.

Genomes sampled around decisive branches in grass evolution reveal when distinct starch and lignin pathways arose. The genomic neighbourhood of ancestral phenylalanine ammonia lyase duplicates, combined with structural and biochemical analysis, exposes how two amino acid substitutions opened a tyrosine route into phenylpropanoid metabolism.

Cooler temperature alters the frequency and genomic sites of chromosomal DNA exchange during reproduction in Arabidopsis thaliana. This response depends on SNI1, a chromosome-architecture factor that acts as a temperature-sensitive brake on crossover formation and helps to determine the genetic combinations passed to the next generation.

Three complementary structural studies show how the plant receptor NUT perceives a disulfide-locked loop in SCREW phytocytokines and recruits a SERK co-receptor. These studies reveal a distinct mode of cyclic peptide perception by an LRR receptor kinase.

Plants express diverse small GTP-binding proteins including Ras-associated binding (RAB) proteins that direct membrane trafficking and Rho-of-plant (ROP) proteins that mostly regulate cytoskeletal organization. Now, integrators of ROP and RAB signalling have been identified as essential for plant reproduction.

Terrestrial vegetation can recover from late-spring frost and even compensate for frost-induced productivity losses. We show that reduced damage and enhanced regrowth jointly drive this overcompensation, a widespread phenomenon that is predicted to become more prevalent with climate warming.

This Review examines how reliability, regulation, public acceptance and advances in design and delivery will shape growers’ decision-making and the adoption of RNA interference-based biopesticides within integrated pest and disease management.

Old and ancient trees should be preserved and protected for their crucial roles in local ecosystems, but it has also been suggested that such individuals may represent storehouses of adaptive potential. However, data from Glyptostrobus pensilis (Chinese swamp cypress) suggest that ancient individuals are not particularly distinct from younger individuals, and that the species demographic history better explains patterns of genetic variation than age structure.

Analysis of an integrated single-nucleus transcriptome generated from ten soybean organs reveals organ- and cell-type-specific co-expression of transcription factor (TF)-encoding genes. This discovery highlights the potential role of co-expressed TFs in maintaining the functional identity of plant cell types.

A wild population on a drought-stricken Atlantic island and a ten-generation greenhouse experiment converge on the same missing 2.7 kilobases of DNA — and highlight that the potential to change can be an adaptation in itself.

Whether growth-promoting hormones boost sugar synthesis in plants has remained unclear. We found that brassinosteroids do so by relieving BIN2-mediated inhibition of PCK, a key enzyme in gluconeogenesis and photosynthesis, in Arabidopsis thaliana, maize and sorghum.

Synthetic apomixis promises to fix hybrid vigour through clonal seeds, yet practical implementation has been limited by low efficiency and reduced fertility. A new study identifies a sperm cell-specific transcription factor, HUAXU, that can trigger fertilization-independent embryogenesis when coupled with clonal gametogenesis, achieving near-complete clonal seed production in hybrid rice with minimal yield penalty. This work provides a mechanistic insight into the paternal activation of embryogenesis and offers a scalable strategy for fixing heterosis in crops.

Reprogramming of plant nucleotide-binding leucine-rich immune receptors has long been limited by natural receptor diversity and hard-to-engineer recognition surfaces. A novel approach combines de novo protein design with directed evolution in planta to build synthetic plant immune receptors that detect diverse pathogen proteins, enabling on-demand design and refinement of resistance genes.

Sugar signalling is a cornerstone of anatomical plasticity and reproductive success, tailoring plant development to metabolic and environmental cues. The demonstration of a C-terminal hexapeptide-dependent mechanism for the autoinhibition of cytosolic invertase activity that is controlled by protein phosphorylation and 14-3-3 protein binding is pivotal to our understanding of carbohydrate metabolism and sugar signalling, as is the knowledge of how this mechanism has been tailored to optimize function during evolution.

DNA replication stress can compromise genome stability, but the mechanisms of protective responses in plants remain unclear. We show that PAF1 counteracts DNA replication stress through plant-specific WEE1-mediated protein stabilization and conserved recruitment of replication factor C to replication forks, where it drives H2B monoubiquitination to protect fork stability.

How and where cultivated chrysanthemums formed has long remained unclear. Haplotype-resolved genome assembly of the modern hexaploid cultivated chrysanthemum and population genomic analyses reveal its origin and domestication, identify possible global dispersal routes and pinpoint loci and genes associated with key agronomic traits.

A study recently published in Nature Plants marks a paradigm shift that the primary role of PROTON GRADIENT REGULATION 5 is not to boost ATP production but to safeguard photosynthesis through ΔpH-dependent photoprotection. By overturning two decades of dogma, it invites us to rethink how plants manage energy and resilience. Photosynthesis is not just about making ATP but is about protecting the delicate machinery that sustains life on Earth.

Despite substantial research into the architecture and biology of the pyrenoid, the fundamental biochemistry of these organelles remains unclear. In particular, the mechanism of carboxylation enhancement by the pyrenoid matrix is not known. We studied this mechanism at a protein-level resolution using a minimal synthetic pyrenoid.

Non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) in plants is thought to occur at a fixed quenching rate, and altering NPQ induction or relaxation is a common strategy for improving photosynthetic efficiency and crop yield. This study shows that in Arabidopsis thaliana the NPQ quenching rate is approximately 35% lower in the presence of the photosynthetic reactions than in their absence.