Publicaties

As the world population continues to increase at an exponential rate, there is a critical need to adapt agricultural practices to meet the growing need for food. Of particular importance for food secu...

The increasing human population and global climate change are putting significant pressure on agricultural production and global food supply. Although chemical nitrogen fertilizers have provided an ef...

Recent research demonstrates that undermining interactions between pathogen effectors and their host target proteins can reduce infection. As more effector–target pairs are identified, their structu...

Nitric oxide (NO) has multifaceted roles in plants. He et al. report that NO produced in the shoot apex causes S-nitrosation of transcription factor GT-1. This mediator of NO signal perception subsequ...

The disruption to international trade caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and, more recently, by armed conflict in Eastern Europe has raised alarms about the future supply of so...

Humans have exploited forest ecosystems for millennia [1–3]. Given the magnitude of land-cover changes, forest management practices, and plantation establishment over the past few centuries, the foo...

In a recent study, Bournonville et al. identified that the tomato PAS/LOV (PLP) photoreceptor downregulates ascorbate synthesis via inhibiting the GDP-L-galactose phosphorylase (VTC2; GGP) activity. T...

The presence of a transgene in the genome of plants is a regulatory challenge. Recently, Liu et al. reported an engineered tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) that can carry large clustered regularly int...

Fungal pathogens cause devastating agroeconomic losses. Chemical fungicides are used to control fungal diseases, although this is not an ecofriendly approach. A recent study by Liu et al. highlighted...

Plants sense oscillation in the day length as a reliable seasonal cue to drive optimal vegetative and reproductive growth. A recent study by Yu et al. has revealed how day length regulates seed size t...

Genome editing technologies such as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) have revolutionized plant breeding through targeted genome and transcriptome modifications. Howev...

Plants have evolved survival strategies in response to their surrounding environment via the biosynthesis of highly diversified PSMs (see Glossary). In turn, these are used as precursors to synthesize...

Recently. Mei et al. discovered the molecular mechanism behind the synergistic action of auxins and jasmonates in enhancing the role of abscisic acid (ABA) in seed germination. They found that JASMONA...

Since the birth of agricultural civilization around 3500 B.C., a large number of crops have been subjected to natural selection and artificial domestication, resulting in substantial changes to their...

China has an in situ conservation system built around national parks, and has begun establishing an ex situ conservation system led by National Botanical Gardens. We highlight how this National Botani...

Plants are sessile organisms that cannot escape from being constantly threatened by adverse environmental factors and changing conditions. During coevolution with natural pathogens, plants have evolve...

At certain physicochemical conditions, molecules like proteins or RNAs separate from a diluted watery phase into a more condensed phase in vitro. This behavior can be also seen in vivo: the discovery...

A better understanding of crop genomes reveals that structural variations (SVs) are crucial for genetic improvement. A graph-based pan-genome by Yan et al. uncovered 424 085 genomic SVs and provided n...

In Figure 2 in this Review article, the two end products, Artemisinin and Arteannuin B, of the pathways shown are reversed. The solid lines of ORA and NAC1 regulating the downstream genes are changed...

Heterotrimeric G proteins, called G proteins hereafter, are molecular signaling complexes comprising three core subunits – Gα, Gβ, and Gγ – that convey signals from receptor proteins to downstr...

Diverse plant small peptides are perceived by their corresponding receptors to mediate local or long-distance intercellular communications in various developmental and adaptive programs; notably, the...

Over the past two decades, the ‘omics revolution’ has resulted in the evolution of the discipline of phenomics (see Glossary). This new discipline, however, has been practiced and conceived withou...

The critical importance of terrestrial plant diversity for human well-being is undisputed. Numerous species are utilized for food, medicine, timber, fiber, and fuel, and many of these uses are species...

Effector proteins are highly diverse, often lacking similarity in their protein sequences, making it challenging to determine their biological function. Using AlphaFold2 (AF2), Seong and Krasileva rec...

Salinity is one of the major environmental factors affecting plant growth and yield, especially in arid and semiarid regions and near the seashore. Furthermore, human activities such as irrigation wit...

Physical mutagenesis and multiomics in microalgae bioprospecting. (1) Exposure of microalgae to the physical mutagen and dose optimization. (2) High-throughput mutants screening and generation of muta...

CRKs belong to a large RLK family containing many evolutionarily conserved members in vascular plants but not in bryophytes and algae [1]. Forty-four CRKs in Arabidopsis thaliana (arabidopsis) and 107...

Vegetation dynamics are caused by competition, recruitment, growth, and mortality processes, which are driven by ecophysiological factors and disturbances. Ecophysiological factors are assessed throug...

Subtropical and tropical forests are some of the most species-rich plant communities on Earth, but they are at risk from pressures of climate and land-use change (e.g., logging, deforestation) [1]. Un...

Throughout evolution, only two known primary photosynthetic endosymbiosis occurred, which originated the Archaeplastida and the Paulinella spp. Fundamental questions regarding primary endosymbiosis re...

Biophysical CCMs (here after called CCM) of microalgae are based on the active transport and concentration of inorganic carbon (Ci; Glossary). They appeared many times independently in aquatic photosy...

The genus Phytophthora morphologically resembles filamentous fungi and, therefore, was previously classified under the kingdom Fungi. However, phylogenetically, Phytophthora belongs to the fungal-like...

There are feedforward and feedback loops along the microbiota–root–shoot axis to maintain plant growth or defense under environmental stresses. Here, we highlight a reciprocal interaction between...

Plants have evolved an array of strategies to adapt to ever-changing environments for survival and reproduction. Among these, overproducing ovaries or ovules for backup and selection of the fittest re...

The green microalga C. reinhardtii is emerging as an attractive recombinant protein production platform that can be powered by light, CO2 as a carbon source, and low-cost production media to deliver h...

In plants, uridine diphosphate (UDP)-dependent glycosyltransferases (UGTs) catalyze glycosylation of secondary metabolites, but assigning physiological functions to UGTs is still a daunting task. The...

Peptides display a broad range of regulatory functions. Ormancey et al. recently identified an important new mechanism – complementary peptides (cPEPs) – that provide a versatile means to control...

KARs have been identified as seed germination stimulants from the smoke of wildfires [1,2]. Recent studies indicate that these butenolide compounds are also associated with multiple signaling pathways...

Osmotic stress limits plant growth and productivity. The downstream signaling components involved in osmotic adjustments are well known, but our knowledge of the perception of osmotic stress is far to...

In the molecular crosstalk between a plant host and its microbial colonizer, microbial effector proteins occupy a central position in modulating the host immune response and physiology to facilitate m...

Temperature has a major role in the growth, development, geographical distribution, and survival of plants. Therefore, temperature change consequently has a significant impact on crop quality and yiel...

Plants are exposed to daily and seasonal temperature changes, and fluctuations in ambient temperatures affect crop production. Over the past few decades rising temperatures caused by climate change ha...

Protein coding genes are transcribed in plants, as in all other eukaryotes, by RNAPII (see Glossary). The path from gene transcription to protein production is long and, during this journey, the prima...

Iron (Fe) is an essential micronutrient for plants, but excess Fe is toxic to plants as it causes overgeneration of reactive oxygen species (ROS) (see Glossary) [1–4]. Therefore, a proper dynamic ch...

Anthropogenic activities such as poor agricultural practices, mining, deforestation, and land-use change have resulted in soil erosion, nutrient leaching, and soil contamination with heavy metals and/...

Rice (Oryza sativa) is not only a major staple food that is consumed globally, but it is also a major source of As intake in humans [1,2], because rice plants take up As and accumulate it in grains mo...

Because they are sessile, plants encounter copious environmental cues to which they respond to thrive and survive. For example, plants respond to light, temperature, moisture, and mechanical stimuli [...

Humans have modified the Earth’s landscapes for agriculture for nearly 10 000 years [1], with a significant acceleration of extent and impact in the past 300 years [2]. Recent intensive agricultural...