New Crops最新文献

Drought is a primary abiotic stress affecting crops, leading to plant stomatal closure, reduced photosynthetic capacity, and reduced yields or even harvest failure. Severe drought can adversely impact agricultural production, ecosystems, and socio-economic capacities. Recently, researchers have studied the regulatory mechanisms of crop drought resistance and cloned hundreds of genes via genetic and molecular approaches. However, a limited number of the cloned genes have been successfully employed in drought resistance breeding, suggesting that drought resistance regulation is too complex. More work must be done to fully understand the regulatory networks of drought responses to breed drought-resistant and high-yield crop varieties. This review outlines the current achievements in investigating crop drought responses, particularly regulation by phytohormones and regulation of genes at transcriptional, post-translational, and epigenetic levels in crop drought responses. Finally, we examine the problems and potential solutions in breeding crop drought resistance and propose strategies for crop drought resistance improvement.

Plants have evolved varied structures for environmental adaptation. Shoot branching, as a part of plant architecture, influences the allocation of sugars produced by photosynthesis and thus greatly impacts crop yields. The activity of axillary meristem- and apical dominance govern- the shoot branching patterns. In this review, we summarize the key factors involved in the formation of lateral branches, and the mechanisms of how these factors are interconnected. In particular, we focus on recent advances in understanding how sugar and environmental signals affect the hormonal signaling network to regulate apical dominance. Ultimately, we propose that epigenetic modifications are critical mechanisms underlying the plasticity of shoot branching, and that precise targeted gene editing is promising for shaping the ideal plant architecture.

Calcium ions (Ca²⁺) serve as key messengers in plant immune reactions. A typical Ca²⁺ signaling involves three steps: encoding specific Ca²⁺ signatures by Ca²⁺-permeable channels, decoding Ca²⁺ signals by Ca²⁺ sensors, and downstream responses. This review focuses on plasma membrane-localized Ca²⁺-permeable channels and cytosolic Ca²⁺ sensors, unraveling their roles in cytosolic Ca²⁺ influx and immune signaling during pattern-triggered immunity, effector-triggered immunity, and autoimmunity. Several unresolved questions were highlighted, including the regulation of Ca²⁺-permeable channel activity for immune induction and the mechanism behind Ca²⁺ influx-triggered hypersensitive response cell death. This concise overview provides insights into the complex interplay of Ca²⁺ signaling in plant immunity, paving the way for future investigations on molecular plant-microbe interactions.

In the rapidly evolving field of biology, phase separation has recently emerged as a revolutionary perspective, shedding new light on our comprehension of cellular processes. This review provides a comprehensive overview of current knowledge regarding phase separation in plants and charts promising avenues for future exploration. We delve into the fundamental principles of plant phase separation, highlighting the roles played by intrinsically disordered regions and prion-like domains. Summarizing significant advancements, we explore the involvement of phase separation in plant responses to environmental cues, as well as its involvement in growth and developmental processes, and plant-microbe interactions. Additionally, we present a streamlined workflow designed to guide the scientific community in conducting phase separation studies in plants. Lastly, we delineate lingering questions and propose potential applications of phase separation in agriculture.

Cells of multicellular plants possess inherent heterogeneity. Recent progress in single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) allows researchers to classify, characterize, and distinguish individual cells at the transcriptome level, enabling the identification of rare cell populations with functional importance. However, scRNA-seq obscures spatial information about cells. Spatial transcriptomics approaches have substantially improved our capacity to detect the spatial distribution of RNA transcripts throughout tissues, yet it remains challenging to characterize whole-transcriptome-level data for single cells spatially. In this review, we offer a concise overview of the scRNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics experimental and computational procedures and the computational strategies required to integrate scRNA-seq data with spatial transcriptomics. We demonstrate their impact on plant fundamental cell biology, discuss their advantages and current challenges, and provide an outlook on the future.

Elevated sodium ion (Na⁺) in saline farmlands adversely affect crops, notably by inhibiting seed germination. Given the importance of High-Affinity K⁺ Transporter (HAK) family Na⁺ transporters in plant salt tolerance and ZmHAK4 role in maize salt tolerance, our study focuses on characterizing HAK transporters related to ZmHAK4 in maize’s salt stress response. We found that ZmHAK17 is vital for promoting seed germination under saline conditions. Expressed mainly in the germinating embryo’s radicle, ZmHAK17, encodes a Na⁺ transporter located in the plasma membrane. Increased ZmHAK17 transcript levels under salt stress facilitate Na⁺ efflux from the radicle, preventing Na⁺ accumulation in the embryo and reducing salt stress effects on germination. Mutants lacking ZmHAK17 exhibit salt-sensitive germination. This study highlights ZmHAK17 as a key transporter enhancing maize germination in saline conditions, deepening our understanding of HAK family Na⁺ transporters’ role in salt tolerance and offering a new target gene for salt-tolerant maize breeding.

Under global climate change circumstances, there has been growing acknowledgment of the critical need to prevent and manage both biotic and abiotic stress in crops. Plants employ a variety of signaling molecules, such as jasmonic acid (JA), abscisic acid (ABA), and Ca²⁺, to endure stress. Additionally, they utilize reactive oxygen species (ROS) and detoxifiers while also harnessing the assistance of beneficial microorganisms, including Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Streptomyces, and others. These microorganisms play a pivotal role in aiding crops in stress management, albeit with certain limitations to their efficacy. This article offers a synthesis and discourse on how crops can selectively engage with beneficial microorganisms via their root systems, elucidating the contributions of these microorganisms to stress tolerance. Drawing upon current insights, we propose refined strategies for leveraging microorganisms to bolster crop stress resilience. By advancing our grasp of plant-microorganism interactions and judiciously selecting and employing beneficial microorganisms, we aim to enhance the dependability and efficacy of microbial products in enhancing crop stress tolerance. This knowledge ultimately equips agricultural practitioners with the information needed to make informed decisions and bolster crops in adapting to rapidly changing environmental conditions.

Stomata are tiny pores on leaf surfaces essential for plant transpiration and photosynthesis. As gatekeepers that mediate gas exchange between plants and the atmosphere, stomata exert a major influence on global carbon and water cycles. The shape and function of stomata are physically constrained by stomatal walls. Compared to the extensively studied genetic mechanisms of stomatal development and guard cell signaling, recent progress is only beginning to uncover the role of plant cell walls in stomatal development and dynamics. In this review, we summarize the research on cell walls of the kidney-shaped stomata from dicots and the dumbbell-shaped stomata from grasses. As the dynamic response of grass stomata is closely linked to its anatomical features that are limited by cell walls, we discuss the potential of plant cell walls as crucial targets for crop engineering to enhance carbon assimilation and water use efficiency.

Higher plants must coordinate their own growth and development by responding to a myriad of internal signals. Simultaneously, confronted with external signals such as pathogen invasion, drought and so on, they must constantly adjust themselves to adapt. These signals can be specifically recognized by transmembrane receptors on the cytoplasmic membrane, comprising receptor kinases (RKs) and receptor-like proteins (RLPs). Among these, leucine-rich repeat receptor kinases (LRR-RKs) and leucine-rich repeat receptor-like proteins (LRR-RLPs) form the largest category. By using X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) single-particle analysis, the ligand recognition and receptor activation mechanisms of some LRR-RKs/RLPs have been elucidated at the atomic scale. This deepens our understanding of the roles played by LRR-RKs/RLPs in the plant growth, development, responses to pathogen invasion and other environmental stresses. Moreover, it provides clues for precise genetic improvement aimed at improving yield, quality and stress resistance in economic crops. This review summarizes the recent progress in structural research on LRR-RKs/RLPs concerning plant growth, development, immune responses and other environmental stress responses. Additionally, this paper discusses how these receptors recognize their respective ligands and how ligand recognition triggers receptor activation from a structural biology perspective, offering new insights for crop improvement.

Extended natural and artificial selection have introduced pronounced differences throughout the genomes, morphological traits, and geographical distributions of the two predominant rice strains, Oryza sativa Xian/indica (XI) and O. sativa Geng/japonica (GJ). However, the unique roles of natural and artificial selection in strain differentiation remain uncharacterized. Therefore, we independently produced advanced inbreeding populations in typical GJ- and XI-cultivated areas, beginning from the F₂ generation. We utilized pedigree and bulk-selective methods to characterize artificial and natural selection, respectively. Our examination uncovered preferences between artificial and natural selection. Artificial selection was favored by individuals with increased grain count per panicle but reduced panicle number, while natural selection favored traits like greater panicle number, reduced grains per panicle, and higher thousand-grain weight, especially in the XI cultivation areas. Notably, in the XI regions, natural selection produced a preference for wider grains, indicating that the elongated grains in XI rice may be caused by artificial rather than natural selection. Using de novo assembly of a high-quality parental genome, we observed an increased prevalence of the GJ genotype in GJ areas compared to XI areas, segregation distortion in the advanced inbreeding population could be attributed to loci regulating hybrid sterility. Notably, the semi-dwarf allele sd1-d, linked to the “Green Revolution”, was not favored in either selection paradigm in northern areas, possibly due to its disadvantages on grain yield per plant and NH₄⁺ uptake rate. Our study offers novel perspectives into the contributions of natural and artificial selection to the divergence between XI and GJ subspecies.