Genomic approaches to accelerate American chestnut restoration More than a century after two introduced pathogens killed billions of American chestnut trees, introgression of resistance alleles from Chinese chestnuts has contributed to the recovery of self-sustai...

Out in @science.org this week, multifaceted genomics approaches to accelerate American chestnut restoration www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

And an accompanying Perspective article here:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#genomics
#plantscience
#forestry

Dihydroxyhexanoic acid biosynthesis controls turgor in pathogenic fungi Many plant pathogenic fungi penetrate host surfaces mechanically, using turgor pressure generated by specialized infection cells called appressoria. These appressoria develop semipermeable cell walls ...

Out in @science.org this week, two fungal enzymes synthesise DHHA, which controls cell wall porosity and turgor in plant pathogenic fungi www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#mycology
#plantscience

Recruitment of bifunctional regulator thermospermine to methylated ribosomes directs xylem fate Polyamines are often associated with ribosomes and are thought to stabilize their integrity. In Arabidopsis, the polyamine thermospermine (tSpm) affects xylem cell fate. tSpm induces translation of SU...

In @science.org this week, thermospermine affects ribosome methylation, which in turn regulates translation of xylem development proteins www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#plantscience

Sad to read of the death of Steve Long who contributed a huge amount to #plantscience

A panorama of plant pangenomes Pangenomes identify genetic variants that inform plant breeding and evolution

And finally the Perspective article here:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#plantscience
#genomics

(4/4)

Gapless pangenome analyses reveal fast Brassica rapa subspeciation Brassica rapa (Br) encompasses many morphotypes and subspecies, so it is a good model with which to investigate plant diversification and subspeciation. Here, we resequenced the genomes of 1720 Br acc...

Brassica rapa panegenome here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
(3/4)

Multiscale pangenome graphs empower the genomic dissection of mixed-ploidy sugarcane species The sugarcane genus Saccharum is characterized by complex genomes with diverse ploidy levels. We developed a multiscale graph–based pangenome representation, which integrates nine genome assemblies in...

Sugarcane pangenome here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

(2/4)

This week in @science.org, a celebration of plant pangenomes. A pangenome analysis for massively polyploid sugarcane species, and one for Brassica rapa giving insight into subspeciation.

What's all the fuss about pangenomes? Pamela and Douglas Soltis explore this in an insightful Perspective(1/4)

In Other Journals Editors’ selections from the current scientific literature

My pick this week: Picking Poison - Selection for rice with increased phosphate uptake appears to have inadvertently led to increased arsenic accumulation.

In Other Journals | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Original paper here: doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
#plantscience

From sequence to function: Bridging single-molecule kinetics and molecular diversity Biological function is fundamentally determined by nucleic acid and protein sequence. Beyond encoding genetic information, nucleic acids also display complex physicochemical parameters that shape stru...

🧬Appearing today @science.org a Review - From sequence to function: Bridging single-molecule kinetics and molecular diversity | Science 🔬https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adv4503

Soils drive convergence in the regulation of vascular tension in land plants Terrestrial vascular plants operate under negative water potential, which results in hydraulic tension in the vascular system. Vascular tension varies with transpiration and soil drying and is regulat...

Out in @science.org this week. Soils drive convergence in the regulation of vascular tension in land plants. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#plantscience
#ecophysiology

Aging drives a program of DNA methylation decay in plant organs Plants display a wide range of life spans and aging rates. Although dynamic changes to DNA methylation are a hallmark of aging in mammals, it is unclear whether similar molecular signatures reflect ra...

Out in @science.org this week: A decline in epigenetic silencing of TEs in older plant organs but not in the shoot meristem. TCX5 and TCX6 help regulate DNA methylation in this context.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#plantscience

Come and work with us! Science is recruiting an editor in the area of next-generation medicine in the USA or UK. bit.ly/4bWOJfn
🧪

A negative feedback loop between TERMINAL FLOWER1 and LEAFY protects inflorescence indeterminacy Inflorescences of flowering plants adopt diverse genetically programmed and environmentally tuned architectures. By contrast, continued maintenance of the stem-cell pool within the apical meristem is ...

Out First Release in @science.org this week:
A feedback loop allows two shoot stem cell populations to respond differently to environmental conditions: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#plantscience

Pan-family pollen signals control an interspecific stigma barrier across Brassicaceae species Prezygotic interspecific incompatibility prevents hybridization between species, which limits interbreeding strategies for crop improvement using wild relatives. The Brassica rapa female self-incompat...

Out in @science.org this week: SIPS binds to a conserved region of SRK to control interspecies incompatibility in Brassicaceae. This contrasts with SRK's variable region, which is involved in self-incompatibility interactions.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#plantscience

Urban dandelions have evolved to stay close to home. That’s bad news Small seed “parachutes” may be causing inbreeding

Dandelions living in downtown areas of Japan have adapted to life in the big city—perhaps a bit too much.

Urban seeds have evolved to float shorter distances than rural ones, potentially leading to inbreeding problems that could threaten these metropolitan populations. https://scim.ag/49mV964

The molecular basis of the binding and specific activation of rhizobial NodD by flavonoids The specific partnership between legumes and rhizobia relies on a chemical dialogue. Plant flavonoids activate the bacterial transcription factor NodD, which triggers production of Nod factors that ar...

In @science.org this week:
The interaction between flavonoids and rhizobial Nod factors during legume symbiosis

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#plantscience

In Other Journals Editors’ selections from the current scientific literature

My pick for In Other Journals this week:
A flowering time regulator helps plants manage conflict between DNA replication and transcription

Paper here:
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

And my summary here:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Vanilla pods?

Some personal news as well – I will be out on maternity leave from March this year and I am very pleased that @uprogress.bsky.social will be covering for me while I’m out. I should be back some time in September! (22/22)

Thanks to all the authors, reviewers and editors who spent their time on these papers and happy reading to the #plantscience community and beyond. What do you think will be coming up next year? And what do you want to see more of? (21/22)

Structure and function of a huge photosystem I–fucoxanthin chlorophyll supercomplex from a coccolithophore Photosystem I (PSI) is a pigment-protein complex, which converts light energy into chemical energy in photosynthesis. Among photosynthetic organisms, PSI-LHC (light-harvesting complex) structures exhi...

Coccolithophore paper here:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
and all the special issue articles here:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
(20/22)

From climate adaptation, we finally move to how plants and related organisms detect and respond to light and temperature with papers on the massive photosystem I of coccolithophores, and the collection of Reviews and Perspectives that we highlighted in our Plants & Heat special issue (19/22):

Transposable elements are vectors of recurrent transgenerational epigenetic inheritance DNA methylation loss at transposable elements (TEs) can affect neighboring genes and be epigenetically inherited in plants, yet the determinants and importance of this additional system of inheritance...

Papers here:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
(18/22)

Large scale genomic analysis also feeds into our papers on plant evolution and inheritance with papers on epigenetic inheritance, the evolution of metabolic enzymes in carrion-mimicking plants, speciation and reproductive isolation in plants, as well as climate adaptation of alpine plants (17/22):

The genetic architecture of cell type–specific cis regulation in maize Gene expression and complex phenotypes are determined by the activity of cis-regulatory elements. However, an understanding of how extant genetic variants affect cis regulation remains limited. Here, ...

Papers here:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
(16/22)

Continuing in the genetics world, research on crop genetics and domestication continues to provide insight, with investigations of chromatin accessibility in maize, variation in seed dormancy traits in barley, and exploration of domestication and diversity in adzuki bean and manioc genomes (15/22):

ARF3-mediated auxin signaling is essential for sex determination in cucumber Sex determination underpins genesis of male and female flowers with particularly important implications in plant breeding. Auxin and ethylene regulate femaleness in cucurbits. In this work, we identif...

Papers here:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
(14/22)

From both a developmental and genomics perspective, a series of papers on sex determination has given insight into reproductive development and chromosome architecture in cucumber, Silene, and walnuts (13/22):

Evolution of interorganismal strigolactone biosynthesis in seed plants Strigolactones (SLs) are methylbutenolide molecules derived from β-carotene through an intermediate carlactonoic acid (CLA). Canonical SLs act as signals to microbes and plants, whereas noncanonical S...

Papers here:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
(12/22)