Tessera

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

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...

science.org

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

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 ...

science.org

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

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...

science.org

Ben Long@botbml.bsky.social · 6mo ago

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

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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)

Di Jiang @dijiang319.bsky.social · 6mo ago

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

In Other Journals

Editors’ selections from the current scientific literature

science.org

🧬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

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...

science.org

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

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...

science.org

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

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...

science.org

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 🧪

bit.ly

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

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 ...

science.org

Science Magazine @science.org · 7mo ago

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

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...

science.org

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

Urban dandelions have evolved to stay close to home. That’s bad news

Small seed “parachutes” may be causing inbreeding

scim.ag

In @science.org this week: The interaction between flavonoids and rhizobial Nod factors during legume symbiosis www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #plantscience

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...

science.org

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/...

In Other Journals

Editors’ selections from the current scientific literature

science.org

At the end of 2024 I did a chronological round up of all the #plantscience in @science.org that year. So how did 2025 pan out? This year, I’m grouping papers thematically instead of chronologically so read on to find out what exciting plant science came out over the last 12 months. (1/22)

Science Magazine@science.org · 7mo ago

Loving this beautiful cover image in this week's @science.org illustrating the paper which came out online late last year www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #Plantscience

Postdomestication selection of MKK3 shaped seed dormancy and end-use traits in barley

Anthropogenic selection of grain traits such as dormancy has shaped the developmental trajectories of crops. In cereals, shortening dormancy provides rapid and even postharvest germination, but increa...

science.org

In domesticated barley, grains with low levels of dormancy can sprout before harvest in the field after exposure to dew, mist, or rain. Preharvest sprouting in barley and other cereals reduces the quality of mature grain and jeopardizes its end-use value. Learn more: https://scim.ag/3KVkV86

Dormancy is the suppression of seed sprouting under environmental conditions that normally favor germination. In domesticated barley, grains with low levels of dormancy can sprout before harvest in the field after exposure to dew, mist, or rain. Preharvest sprouting in barley and other cereals reduces the quality of mature grain and jeopardizes its end-use value.

The @science.org NOSTER microbiome prize is open for entries until 14th February. $25k top prize and essay published in Science. Open to researchers up to 10 years post PhD. See the website for further details www.science.org/content/page... 🧪

NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize

The NOSTER Science Microbiome Prize has been established to reward innovative research by young investigators working on the functional attributes of the microbiota of any organism that has potential ...

science.org

Very excited to highlight this week's issue of @science.org Firstly, the news team highlight some important breakthroughs (and breakdowns) of the year. Renewable energy takes the top spot: www.science.org/content/arti... (1/5)

Science’s 2025 Breakthrough of the Year: The unstoppable rise of renewable energy

Clean energy infrastructure is being deployed with unmatched scale and speed—and China is leading the way

science.org

Out First Release in @science.org Insight into how auxin and ethylene determine whether cucumbers make male or female flowers: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #Plantscience

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. Here, we identified an a...

science.org

Science Magazine@science.org · 8mo ago

Nice interdisciplinary #plantscience -related paper in Science handled by our neuroscience editor, @mattiamaroso.bsky.social Infrared heat from cycads as a pollination signal before flowers evolved. Paper here www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Perspective here www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Infrared radiation is an ancient pollination signal

Color and scent are well-known pollinator cues. Some plants also produce heat, but its role remains unclear. Here, we report that plant-generated thermal infrared radiation serves as a pollination sig...

science.org

Long before flowers dazzled pollinators with brilliant colors and sweet scents, ancient plants used another feature to signal insects: heat. The findings in Science offer insights into what shaped the earliest eras of plant-animal coevolution. Read more in this week's issue: https://scim.ag/4rVtArQ

Cycad plants use thermogenesis to warm their reproductive cones. A beetle dusted with pollen and fluorescent dyes lands on the warm cone of a cycad. High concentrations of dye have been deposited on the cone’s hottest regions during previous visits by other labeled beetles. Beetle pollinators use these thermal infrared patterns as a guide to locate host pollen and ovulate cones.

This week in @science.org Structural insight into the incorporation of far-red chlorophyll f in cyanobacterial photosystem I www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #cyanobacteria #plantscience

Locating the missing chlorophylls f in far-red photosystem I

The discovery of chlorophyll f–containing photosystems, with their long-wavelength photochemistry, represented a distinct, low-energy paradigm for oxygenic photosynthesis. Structural studies on chloro...

science.org

My pick for In Other Journals this week: Targeted gene induction to generate stem cells for regeneration of recalcitrant species My summary here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Paper here: doi.org/10.1093/plce... #PlantScience #PlantSci

In Other Journals

Editors’ selections from the current scientific literature

science.org

Out in @science.org this week: PME5 is sequestered in the nucleus and released during cytokinesis allowing its activity to be timed with cell division. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #PlantScience #PlantSci

Cell wall patterning regulates plant stem cell dynamics

The plant cell wall regulates development through spatiotemporal modulation of its chemical and mechanical properties. Pectin methylesterification is recognized as a rheological switch controlling wal...

science.org

Out First Release in @science.org A pollen ligand, SIPS, binds to the female receptor, SRK. SIPS binds to a conserved region of SRK, for interspecific incompatibility, unlike the self-incompatibility factor, which binds to a different, variable region www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #PlantScience

Pan-family pollen signals control an interspecific stigma barrier across Brassicaceae species

Pre-zygotic interspecific incompatibility prevents hybridization between species limiting interbreeding strategies for crop improvement using wild relatives. The Brassica rapa female self-incompatibil...

science.org

And now we have Arabidopsis plants with 8 chromosomes instead of 10 and no obvious phenotypic differences, this week in @science.org #PlantScience Paper here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Perspective here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

CRISPR-Cas–mediated heritable chromosome fusions in Arabidopsis

The genome of Arabidopsis thaliana consists of 10 chromosomes. By inducing CRISPR-Cas–mediated breaks at subcentromeric and subtelomeric sequences, we fused entire chromosome arms, obtaining two eight...

science.org

Out First Release in @science.org Exploring how MKK3 variation affects the balance between dormancy and preharvest sprouting in barley: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #plantscience

Postdomestication selection of MKK3 shaped seed dormancy and end-use traits in barley

Anthropogenic selection of grain traits such as dormancy has shaped the developmental trajectories of crops. In cereals, shortening dormancy provides rapid and even post-harvest germination, but incre...

science.org

My pick for In Other Journals this week: A MYB transcription factor regulates lignin deposition on thorn tips: My summary here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Paper here: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

In Other Journals

Editors’ selections from the current scientific literature

science.org