Heat stress can make plasma membranes (PMs) too fluid. Work @nature shows how rice cells rapidly flip saturated phosphatidylcholine across the PM, stabilizing membrane fluidity, limiting ion leakage, and promoting heat tolerance and yield stability. shorturl.at/PZFg4 &NV shorturl.at/kU4Uv

Plant membranes shuffle lipids around to stay firm under heat stress

High temperatures make cell membranes weak and leaky. Rice plants rapidly counteract this effect by adjusting membrane lipid content, enabling them to resist heatwaves.

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Cold weather and high fertilizer use threaten rice yields. @nature, authors identify a gene, CHPO, that helps rice recover after chilling and use nitrogen more effectively. Natural variation in CHPO can be used to grow rice better in cold conditions with less fertilizer. shorturl.at/eLUjv

Plants use nitrogen inefficiently. A study @nature shows that, in maize, the plastoglobule droplets within chloroplast organise key nitrogen-fixation enzymes, supercharging nitrogen use. The findings could be relevant to growing crops using less fertiliser. shorturl.at/1dNA9 &NV shorturl.at/G1NDu

Plastoglobules compartmentalize nitrogen assimilation in maize - Nature

Chloroplast plastoglobules act as nitrogen-assimilation hubs in maize, with key enzymes enhancing nitrogen-use efficiency and offering new strategies for developing high-yield, sustainable crops.

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Cold weather damages crops by causing pollen to fail. Work @nature shows how plants detect and respond to cold during pollen development. It uncovers a peptide receptor signalling pathway that boosts pollen cold resilience, restoring ~52% of tomato yield and ~18% in rice. shorturl.at/j7zOb

Cold-induced peptide signalling secures pollen resilience and crop yield - Nature

A small-peptide signalling axis involving RGF family members controls resilience to cold stress in tomatoes and rice; modulating this pathway prevents cold-induced yield losses.

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The ESCRT machinery mediates repair of damaged lysosomal membranes. But how does it recognise damage? Authors @nature report LASER, a fast-forming protein assembly that detects Ca2+-leakage from sites of lysosomal injury and recruits ESCRTs there. shorturl.at/T9zM6

LASER couples damage sensing to ESCRT assembly for lysosome repair - Nature

ATG8 conjugation on damaged lysosomes triggers rapid assembly of a protein complex containing TFG, which directs lysosomal membrane repair by recruiting ESCRT proteins to sites of damage.

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Unlike its wild ancestor teosinte, maize lost much of its seed protein during domestication. A paper @nature discovers teosinte genes that, when expressed in modern maize, increase seed protein without lowering crop yield. shorturl.at/zdsvY & highlight @natplants.nature.com: shorturl.at/e3f6C

Teosinte alleles enhance nitrogen assimilation and seed protein in maize - Nature

Teosinte alleles enhance nitrogen assimilation and seed protein without lowering crop yield when expressed in modern maize, providing a powerful strategy for crop improvement to meet future population demands.

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Water is essential to life; so how do cells sense and respond to the stress associated with changes in water levels? Work @nature shows that when water is scarce, the plant protein SAM8 forms condensates, trapping RNA-processing factors and so reprogramming translation. shorturl.at/4VZQf

Cellular water-potential sensing through biomolecular condensation - Nature

Plants sense water deficiency through SAM8 protein condensation, which responds to reduced hydration and triggers stress adaptation by altering RNA export and gene translation.

nature.com

@nature, researchers describe an RNA-RNA-mediated arm-race between fungal pathogens and their plant hosts. Specifically, they show that a fungal lncRNA weakens host immunity by sequestering a protective rice miRNA. shorturl.at/mIuvy

A pathogen lncRNA secreted into rice sequesters a host miRNA for virulence - Nature

A fungal long non-coding RNA from Magnaporthe oryzae translocates into rice cells to sequester a host microRNA that normally represses PKR1, a negative immunity regulator, thereby facilitating infection and revealing a widespread RNA-based pathogen–host interaction mechanism.

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Work @nature reports a technique that reveals that ubiquitin tags not just proteins and lipids but also sugars and other small molecules. Focusing on glycogen, the authors show its ubiquitination in cells and tissues, and in the context of metabolism and disease. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Just as low-oxygen levels stress plants that are exposed to flooding, so does post-flooding reoxygenation and the associated burst of reactive oxygen species. Work @nature, shows that in both cases, the same molecular players mediate plants’ stress response. shorturl.at/kIRDf

H2O2 repurposes plant O2 sensing to regulate post-hypoxia responses - Nature

Experiments in Arabidopsis demonstrate that group VII ethylene response factors show differential responses to different stimuli, enabling plants in flood-prone environments to adapt to both submergence-induced hypoxia and reoxygenation upon desubmergence.

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Work @nature shows how an NLR--transcription factor module mediates rice resistance to bacterial blight. Rice subspecies differing in this module vary in pathogen resistance. The authors overcome lower resistance by manipulating the two layers of plant immunity. share.google/yeQzT8TgUzaM...

Numerous fungal diseases threaten rice crops. @nature, researchers identify a gene that makes rice susceptible to multiple fungal pathogens. In field-based experiments, rice crops in which this gene was disrupted showed resistance to several fungal diseases. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

To activate plant immunity, NLR receptors such as SUMM2 form resistosome complexes, which act as Ca2+-permeable plasma-membrane channels. Work @nature shows how SUMM2 and its associates assemble into even higher-order clusters to initiate cell death. shorturl.at/653TZ plus N&V shorturl.at/vqqYg

Assembly of helper NLR resistosome clusters upon activation of a coiled-coil NLR - Nature

SUMM2, a coiled-coil NLR, promotes the assembly of higher-order resistosome clusters to initiate cell death in plants.

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@Nature: an E3 ligase, acting via the jasmonate pathway, is a common regulator of both cold stress & phosphate uptake. Guided by AI, the authors use genome editing to show the relevance of this finding for improving maize yield in multi-site field trials. shorturl.at/KrKBo & NV shorturl.at/rwldu

Rewiring an E3 ligase enhances cold resilience and phosphate use in maize - Nature

The E3 ubiquitin ligase NLA postively regulates cold tolerance and negatively regulates phosphate uptake in maize, and a genetically engineered variant of this enzyme leads to improved cold ...

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Lipid transfer proteins (LTPs) maintain the specific lipid compositions of cellular membranes. @nature, a systematic characterization of complexes between human LTPs and their lipid cargo provides a resource for a better understanding of these proteins. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Disruption of protein import into mitochondria affects cellular balance and can cause disease. Work @nature shows that cells sense this defect through inter-organelle communication and a signalling role of mitochondrial targeting sequence. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A direct role for a mitochondrial targeting sequence in signalling stress - Nature

Cells can sense mitochondrial damage through signalling via an unimported mitochondrial targeting sequence.

nature.com

One environmental factor that affects crop yield is soil stress. Work @nature shows how soil compaction stress affects plant root growth through hormonal signals and cell-wall remodelling. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Ethylene modulates cell wall mechanics for root responses to compaction - Nature

Soil compaction traps ethylene around roots, which causes transcriptional upregulation of Auxin Response Factor1, resulting in decreased root cortical cell wall thickness and thereby promoting root ra...

nature.com

On plant cells, receptor-like kinases mediate both immune and symbiotic signalling. Work @nature provides amino-acid-level molecular insights into how signalling specificity is achieved downstream of such similar receptors. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Two residues reprogram immunity receptors for nitrogen-fixing symbiosis - Nature

An investigation of plant receptor-like kinases identifies regions of these proteins that control whether immune or symbiotic signalling pathways are activated, with minimal changes to specific r...

nature.com

The >1000 lipid species found in eukaryotic cells have vital functions. Using a combination of microscopy, spectroscopy and modelling, authors report @nature the first quantitative map of retrograde flux of individual lipids in cells.

André Nadler@nadlerlab.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Out today in @nature.com: Together with the Honigmann, Shevchenko, Drobot and Hof labs, we present a general workflow for imaging the localization and transport of individual lipids in cells and mapping their metabolism. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

An @nature paper presents a single-cell multi-omics atlas of eight rice organs. Insights emerging from this resource include new cell states during rice development and correlations between cell type and agronomic traits. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A single-cell multi-omics atlas of rice - Nature

A single-cell multi-omics atlas of rice is revealed, providing insight into cell-type functions and molecular programs.

nature.com

In today’s issue of @nature, read a Review article on the latest and upcoming technologies that could aid research and development in crop science, contributing to sustainable global food security. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Integrated biotechnological and AI innovations for crop improvement - Nature

The integration of omics technologies, genome editing and protein design with artificial intelligence (AI) promises rapid advances in the field of crop improvement that will improve global food securi...

nature.com

Plant NLR receptors mediate pathogen resistance, and so their engineering could lead to crops with broader pathogen specificity and so broader disease resistance. @nature, authors report one such attempt achieving resistance to several potyviruses. www.nature.com/articles/s41... & shorturl.at/932j7

Remodelling autoactive NLRs for broad-spectrum immunity in plants - Nature

Cleavage by pathogen-derived proteases of an engineered chimeric protein activates its plant immune receptor component, enabling broad-spectrum resistance to pathogens in plants.

nature.com

How the plant defence hormone salicylic acid (SA) is formed in some bacteria and in Arabidopsis is well-established. Three @nature papers now describe a different pathway of SA biosynthesis in non-Brassicaceae plants. rb.gy/9tgn8g shorturl.at/fYAYo shorturl.at/UCvo0 & NV tinyurl.com/bdz2p6dx

Three-step biosynthesis of salicylic acid from benzoyl-CoA in plants - Nature

The salicylic acid (SA) biosynthesis pathway—involving ligation of benzoyl coenzyme A and benzyl alcohol to give benzyl benzoate; hydroxylation of benzyl benzoate to give benzyl salicylate; and cleava...

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Very much looking forward to hearing and seeing exciting research and to interacting with reseachers at #2025ISMPMI. Happy also to answer any questions about publishing in Nature and sister journals.

How do plants notice loss of structural barriers (e.g. the periderm, which prevents water loss and pathogen infection) to regenerate them? Work @nature shows that plants sense damage to barrier integrity from diffusion of gases such as ethylene and oxygen. shorturl.at/FIhJ8 & N&V shorturl.at/u7PYs

Injured plants use gaseous cues to initiate repair of their outer layers

The periderm layers of plants form an outer protective barrier. If the periderm is broken, movement of the gases ethylene and oxygen triggers a healing process.

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Transparent peer review to be extended to all of Nature’s research papers

From today, all new submissions to Nature that are published will be accompanied by referees’ reports and author responses — to illuminate the process of producing rigorous science.

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A bottleneck for studying the biological function of biomolecular condensates is unavailability of tools to selectively probe them within living cells. @nature, researchers report one such tool, showcasing its use in various contexts including disease. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Probing condensate microenvironments with a micropeptide killswitch - Nature

Targeting a non-natural micropeptide ‘killswitch’ to several biomolecular condensates altered condensate compositions and revealed condensate functions in human cells

nature.com

The diverse cellular roles of early endosomes involve coordinated activity of several hundred integral membrane proteins and transiently associated regulatory complexes. A study @nature presents a systematic structural interactome of human endosomes . www.nature.com/articles/s41...

EndoMAP.v1 charts the structural landscape of human early endosome complexes - Nature

A study presents EndoMAP.v1, a resource that combines information on protein interactions and crosslink-supported structural predictions to map the interaction landscape of early endosomes.

nature.com