Feeding the world sustainably: efficient nitrogen use

Globally, overuse of nitrogen (N) fertilizers in croplands is causing severe environmental pollution. In this context, Gu et al. suggest environmentally friendly and cost-effective N management practices and Hamani et al. highlight the use of microbial inoculants to improve crop yields, while reducing N-associated environmental pollution and N-fertilizer use.     

Phytochromes and flowering: legumes do it another way

Phytochromes have a crucial role in the regulation of flowering in many plants, but the underlying molecular mechanisms vary among species. Recently, Lin et al. described a unique phytochrome A (phyA)-controlled photoperiodic flowering pathway in soybean (Glycine max), revealing a novel mechanism for photoperiodic regulation of flowering.     

Sideways: road to gene-by-gene functional screening in malaria parasites

Genome-wide screening in apicomplexan species has transformed our understanding of these parasitic protozoa. Kimmel et al. report a 'knock sideways' system and provide a powerful use case for its feasibility in a gene-by-gene screening in Plasmodium falciparum. Carefully deployed, a novel toolkit helps to dissect the biological uniqueness of an important parasite.     

Maternal plastid inheritance: two abating factors identified

Organelle DNAs (orgDNAs) in mitochondria and plastids are generally inherited from the maternal parent; however, it is unclear how their inheritance mode is controlled, particularly in the plastids of seed plants. Chung et al. identify two factors that affect maternal inheritance in tobacco plastids: cold temperature and DNA amount in pollen.     

Viral sponges sequester nucleotide signals to inactivate immunity

Bacteria synthesize specialized nucleotide signals to control anti-phage defense. Two papers – by Huiting et al. and Jenson et al. – now reveal that bacteriophages encode protein ‘sponges’ that sequester cyclic oligonucleotide immune signals and inactivate host antiviral immunity.     

Plants 'cry' for help through acoustic signals

Plants perceive sounds, while responses to these sounds were already known. A breakthrough is the discovery by Khait et al. that stressed plants emit various informative ultrasonic sound signals, which can be categorized according to plant species, stress type, and stress severity. This discovery may change how plants are cultivated.     

Small but mighty: microexons in glucose homeostasis

Many molecular mechanisms underlying blood glucose homeostasis remain elusive. Juan-Mateu et al. find that pancreatic islet cells utilize a regulatory program, originally identified in neurons, that involves alternative splicing of microexons in genes important for insulin secretion or diabetes risk.     

Senescent cell: the ‘factory of viral amplification’

It has been demonstrated that reactivation of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), the remnants of ancient retroviral infection, participate in various physiological and pathological conditions. Liu et al. recently showed us very interesting findings that aberrant expression of ERVs, induced by epigenetic alterations, accelerates cellular senescence.     

Conferring resistance to parasitic witchweed by shifting strigolactone biosynthesis

Strigolactones from the exudates of maize root induce germination of the parasitic witchweed Striga. Recently, Li et al. characterized the biosynthesis pathway of two strigolactones, zealactol and zealactonoic acid, which induce less Striga germination than the major maize strigolactone, zealactone. This study provides a promising strategy for plant protection against parasitic witchweed.     

pH regulates peptide–receptor perception

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 mechanisms of peptide–receptor perception remain largely unrevealed. Two reports (Liu et al.; Diaz-Ardila et al.) shed light on how pH regulates peptide–receptor perception.     

Dual function of the CHS3-CSA1 immune receptor pair

Plant nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) receptors mediate specific recognition of pathogen effectors to initiate effector-triggered immunity. Recently, studies by Schulze et al., Yang et al., and Gu et al. collectively show that the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) NLR pair CHS3-CSA1 acts through two distinct activation modes to recognize different pathogen effectors, thus revealing the dual function of the CHS3-CSA1 pair in plant disease resistance.     

Chemical constituents from Valeriana jatamansi

Phytochemical study of Valeriana jatamansi Jones afforded 45 compounds, including twenty-three iridoids (1–23), five sesquiterpenes (24–28), three steroids (29–31) and fourteen lignins (32–45). The structures of these compounds were assigned by detailed interpretation of spectroscopic data (1D and 2D NMR, HRESIMS) and comparisons with the published data. This is the first report of isolation of compounds (1–6, 10, 21, 25, 41, 43, 44, 45) from Valerianaceae, compounds (13, 27, 39) within the genus Valeriana and compound 30 from V. jatamans. The chemotaxonomic data can support the genus Valeriana being accepted as a member of transitional taxa between the family Valerianaceae and Caprifoliaceae.     

Mycoviral gene-incorporating phytopathogenic fungi: a biocontrol agent

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 the use of mycoviral gene-incorporating phytopathogenic fungi as biocontrol agents for disease management.     

Actin finally matures: uncovering machinery and impact

Actin, one of the most abundant proteins in nature and a key component of the cytoskeleton, undergoes a unique multistep N-terminal (Nt) maturation. In a recent report, Haahr et al. identified actin maturation protease (ACTMAP) as the dedicated actin aminopeptidase and showed that its absence is associated with abnormal muscle physiology.     

Decoding a ribosome uncertainty

The ribosome is among the most ancient macromolecular complexes. Throughout evolution, the function of the ribosome has remained essential and conserved: the decoding of an mRNA template with tRNA-linked amino acids, to synthesize a protein. In a recent study, Holm et al. capture evolutionary distinctions in the structure and kinetics of ‘mRNA decoding’ by the human ribosome.     

Sense the moist and feel the heat: mosquito host and oviposition site detection

Laursen et al. identified coreceptor Ir93a that is required for humidity and thermal sensing in the mosquito species Anopheles gambiae and Aedes aegypti. Behavioural studies with mutant mosquitoes with disrupted Ir93a revealed that they were less attracted to a blood meal source and oviposition site at close distance.     

A graft that crafts nontransgenic and genome-edited plants

Grafting in plants facilitates the transmission of biomolecules across the union formation. Recently, Yang et al. demonstrated that inter- and intraspecific grafting in plants can be exploited for trafficking tRNA-tagged mobile reagents of the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas system from the transgenic rootstock to wild-type scion for genetic improvement in plants through targeted mutagenesis.