Trends in Plant Science最新文献

The mechanisms by which plants modulate root morphology, architecture, and the associated molecular pathways to cope with conditions of water deficit remain incompletely understood. Recently, Roy et al. elucidated novel aspects of an adaptive trait, termed xerobranching, which plays a critical role in fine-tuning drought adaptation.

Photoinhibition of photosystem II (PSII) limits the fixation of light energy by photosynthesis and, thus, the productivity of plants everywhere. Photosynthetic organisms are equipped with a system that protects the photosynthetic machinery from photoinhibition by enhancing the repair of photodamaged PSII. However, the repair process is inhibited by oxidative stress and other types of environmental stress, which generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), primarily via the suppression of protein synthesis. The molecular mechanism responsible for the inhibitory effects of ROS on protein synthesis is now well understood. In this review we focus on the fact that translation elongation factors EF-G and EF-Tu contain highly conserved cysteine residues that are sensitive to oxidation by ROS, and the way in which exposure to ROS results in the interruption of peptide elongation.

Plants have developed sophisticated signaling mechanisms to adapt to environmental changes, and secreted peptides play crucial roles. Sulfated tyrosine (sTyr) peptides are important regulators of plant growth, nutrient uptake, defense responses, and seed development. This study delves into the evolution of sTyr peptides, their receptors, and the enzyme tyrosylprotein sulfotransferase (TPST) that is responsible for their activation. By exploring the evolutionary timeline of sTyr peptide function, we aim to determine their significance in the emergence of land plants. We map the distribution of sTyr peptides, their receptors, and TPST across different plant species, and identify key sites essential for their activity. These findings provide a comprehensive overview of the functional and evolutionary significance of sTyr peptidesand offer insights into their potential agricultural applications.

During their life cycle, plants encounter simultaneous biotic and abiotic stresses. A low availability of inorganic phosphorus (P) commonly limits plant growth in natural and agricultural ecosystems. Pathogen attacks pose risks to plant productivity and biodiversity, causing yield loss and ecosystem degradation. Plants evolved various strategies to cope with P limitation, which, in turn, affect their resistance to pathogens. However, a comprehensive understanding of how efficient plant P-acquisition strategies influence their pathogen resistance under P-limited conditions remains elusive. We highlight how these P-acquisition strategies can enhance or decrease pathogen resistance through multiple mechanisms. We advocate using this information to design more sustainable agricultural systems and explain species turnover in natural ecosystems, especially in the context of global change.

A recent study by Wang et al. demonstrates that nitric oxide (NO) influences plant development and stress tolerance in arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). By modulating mitogen-activated protein kinase 6 (MPK6) phosphorylation through NO-driven S-nitrosylation, NO promotes stomatal formation and enhances stress resilience, offering insights into the role of redox regulation in plant adaptation and potential crop improvements.

Wheat is a primary staple crop worldwide, grown in a wide range of environments, leading to significant yield variation. Improving wheat yield potential and resilience against abiotic and biotic stresses are critical to food security. A perennial debate is to breed for yield potential or for adaptation to specific conditions. In this review, we show that often selection for yield potential also improves crop yield under stress with no trade-offs. We examine agronomic and physiological traits associated with yield that are less likely to exhibit crossover or scaling effects, and we discuss their implications for breeding.

High day and night temperatures impair grain yield and quality in major cereal crops such as rice, maize, and wheat, posing a major challenge under global warming. In this review, we have highlighted advances that govern flowering through clock genes, key genetic regulatory mechanisms of the complex processes that regulate inflorescence architecture and grain filling efficiency, which are affected by heat stress. This unraveled knowledge offers opportunities to improve grain yield and quality without tradeoffs, leading to higher grain number, more efficient grain filling, and maintaining uncompromised starch-to-protein accumulation under high day and night temperatures.

In a recent issue of Cell, the cover story introduces the 'kleptosome', a newly identified organelle in Elysia crispata. Here, we will discuss the significance of this definition and explore the potential for engineering photosynthetic systems within animal cells.

HISTONE DEACETYLASE (HDAC)-mediated nonhistone deacetylation is an evolutionarily conserved post-translational modification (PTM) essential for plant stress adaptation. Recently, two HDAC modules involved in plant responses to drought and pathogens, respectively, were functionally analyzed by Liu et al. and Zhang et al., providing evidence that biotic and abiotic stress-triggered relief of deacetylation functions as a switch for crop resilience.