Plant Communications最新文献

The chemical modifications of DNA and proteins are powerful mechanisms for regulating molecular and biological functions, influencing a wide array of signaling pathways in eukaryotes. Recent advancements in epitranscriptomics have shown that RNA modifications play crucial roles in diverse biological processes. Since their discovery in the 1970s, scientists have sought to decipher, identify, and elucidate the functions of these modifications across biological systems. Over the past decade, mounting evidence has demonstrated the importance of RNA modification pathways in plants, prompting significant efforts to decipher their physiological relevance. With the advent of high-resolution mapping techniques for RNA modifications and the gradual uncovering of their biological roles, our understanding of this additional layer of regulation is beginning to take shape. In this review, we summarize recent findings on the major RNA modifications identified in plants, with an emphasis on N6-methyladenosine (m⁶A), the most extensively studied modification. We discuss the functional significance of the effector components involved in m⁶A modification and its diverse roles in plant biotic interactions, including plant-virus, plant-bacterium, plant-fungus, and plant-insect relationships. Furthermore, we highlight new technological developments driving research progress in this field and outline key challenges that remain to be addressed.

Phosphatidic acid (PA) is an important class of signaling lipids involved in various biological processes in plants. Functional characterization of mutants of PA-metabolizing enzymes, combined with lipidomics and protein-lipid interaction analyses, has revealed the key role of PA signaling in plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. Moreover, PA and its metabolizing enzymes influence several reproductive processes, including gametogenesis, pollen tube growth, self-incompatibility, haploid embryo formation, embryogenesis, and seed development. They also play a significant role in shaping plant reproductive and root architecture. Recent studies have shed light on the diverse mechanisms of PA's action, though much remains to be elucidated. Here, we summarize recent advances in the study of PA and its metabolizing enzymes, emphasizing their roles in plant sexual reproduction and architecture. We also explore potential mechanisms underlying PA's functions and discuss future research directions.

Rice is a staple food for half of the world's population and the largest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) from the agricultural sector, responsible for approximately 48% of GHG emissions from croplands. With the rapid growth of the human population, the increasing pressure on rice systems for extensive and intensive farming is associated with an increase in GHG emissions that is impeding global efforts to mitigate climate change. The complex rice environment, with its genotypic variability among rice cultivars, as well as emerging farming practices and global climatic changes, are important challenges for research and development initiatives that aim to lower GHG emissions and increase crop productivity. A combination of approaches will likely be needed to effectively improve the resilience of modern rice farming. These will include a better understanding of the major drivers of emissions, different cropping practices to control the magnitude of emissions, and high yield performance through systems-level studies. The use of rice hybrids may give farmers an additive advantage, as hybrids may be better able to resist environmental stress than inbred varieties. Recent progress in the development and dissemination of hybrid rice has demonstrated a shift in the carbon footprint of rice production and is likely to lead the way in transforming rice systems to reduce GHG emissions. The application of innovative technologies such as high-throughput sequencing, gene editing, and AI can accelerate our understanding of the underlying mechanisms and critical drivers of GHG emissions from rice fields. We highlight advanced practical approaches to rice breeding and production that can support the increasing contribution of hybrid rice to global food and nutritional security while ensuring a sustainable and healthy planet.

Heterosis is extensively used in the 2-line hybrid breeding system. Photosensitive/thermosensitive genic male sterile (P/TGMS) lines are key components of 2-line hybrid rice, and TGMS lines containing tms5 have significantly advanced 2-line hybrid rice breeding. We cloned the TMS5 gene and found that TMS5 is a tRNA cyclic phosphatase that can remove 2',3'-cyclic phosphate (cP) from cP-ΔCCA-tRNAs for efficient repair to ensure maintenance of mature tRNA levels. tms5 mutation causes increased levels of cP-ΔCCA-tRNAs and reduced levels of mature tRNAs, leading to male sterility at restrictive temperatures. However, the regulatory network of tms5-mediated TGMS remains to be clarified. Here, we demonstrate that the E3 ligase OsHel2 cooperates with TMS5 to regulate TGMS at restrictive temperatures. Consistently, both the accumulation of cP-ΔCCA-tRNAs and the reduction in mature tRNAs in the tms5 mutant are largely recovered in the tms5 oshel2-1 mutant. A lesion in OsHel2 results in partial readthrough of the stalled sequences, thereby enabling evasion of ribosome-associated protein quality control (RQC) surveillance. Our findings reveal a mechanism by which OsHel2 impedes readthrough of stalled mRNA sequences to regulate male fertility in TGMS rice, providing a paradigm for investigating how disorders in components of the RQC pathway impair cellular functions and lead to diseases or defects in other organisms.

Plants have developed intricate mechanisms for rapid and efficient stress perception and adaptation in response to environmental stressors. Recent research highlights the emerging role of biomolecular condensates in modulating plant stress perception and response. These condensates function through numerous mechanisms to regulate cellular processes such as transcription, translation, RNA metabolism, and signaling pathways under stress conditions. In this review, we provide an overview of current knowledge on stress-responsive biomolecular condensates in plants, including well-defined condensates such as stress granules, processing bodies, and the nucleolus, as well as more recently discovered plant-specific condensates. By briefly referring to findings from yeast and animal studies, we discuss mechanisms by which plant condensates perceive stress signals and elicit cellular responses. Finally, we provide insights for future investigations on stress-responsive condensates in plants. Understanding how condensates act as stress sensors and regulators will pave the way for potential applications in improving plant resilience through targeted genetic or biotechnological interventions.

Transition metals are types of metals with high chemical activity. They play critical roles in plant growth, development, reproduction, and environmental adaptation, as well as in human health. However, the acquisition, transport, and storage of these metals pose specific challenges due to their high reactivity and poor solubility. In addition, distinct yet interconnected apoplastic and symplastic diffusion barriers impede their movement throughout plants. To overcome these obstacles, plants have evolved sophisticated carrier systems to facilitate metal transport, relying on the tight coordination of vesicles, enzymes, metallochaperones, low-molecular-weight metal ligands, and membrane transporters for metals, ligands, and metal-ligand complexes. This review highlights recent advances in the homeostasis of transition metals in plants, focusing on the barriers to transition metal transport and the carriers that facilitate their passage through these barriers.

Synthetic biology plays a pivotal role in improving crop traits and increasing bioproduction through the use of engineering principles that purposefully modify plants through "design, build, test, and learn" cycles, ultimately resulting in improved bioproduction based on an input genetic circuit (DNA, RNA, and proteins). Crop synthetic biology is a new tool that uses circular principles to redesign and create innovative biological components, devices, and systems to enhance yields, nutrient absorption, resilience, and nutritional quality. In the digital age, artificial intelligence (AI) has demonstrated great strengths in design and learning. The application of AI has become an irreversible trend, with particularly remarkable potential for use in crop breeding. However, there has not yet been a systematic review of AI-driven synthetic biology pathways for plant engineering. In this review, we explore the fundamental engineering principles used in crop synthetic biology and their applications for crop improvement. We discuss approaches to genetic circuit design, including gene editing, synthetic nucleic acid and protein technologies, multi-omics analysis, genomic selection, directed protein engineering, and AI. We then outline strategies for the development of crops with higher photosynthetic efficiency, reshaped plant architecture, modified metabolic pathways, and improved environmental adaptability and nutrient absorption; the establishment of trait networks; and the construction of crop factories. We propose the development of SMART (self-monitoring, adapted, and responsive technology) crops through AI-empowered synthetic biotechnology. Finally, we address challenges associated with the development of synthetic biology and offer potential solutions for crop improvement.

Plant diseases, caused by a wide range of pathogens, severely reduce crop yield and quality, posing a significant threat to global food security. Developing broad-spectrum resistance (BSR) in crops is a key strategy for controlling crop diseases and ensuring sustainable crop production. Cloning disease-resistance (R) genes and understanding their underlying molecular mechanisms provide new genetic resources and strategies for crop breeding. Novel genetic engineering and genome editing tools have accelerated the study and engineering of BSR genes in crops, which is the primary focus of this review. We first summarize recent advances in understanding the plant immune system, followed by an examination of the molecular mechanisms underlying BSR in crops. Finally, we highlight diverse strategies employed to achieve BSR, including gene stacking to combine multiple R genes, multiplexed genome editing of susceptibility genes and promoter regions of executor R genes, editing cis-regulatory elements to fine-tune gene expression, RNA interference, saturation mutagenesis, and precise genomic insertions. The genetic studies and engineering of BSR are accelerating the breeding of disease-resistant cultivars, contributing to crop improvement and enhancing global food security.